Word.ws English Dictionary

checkered

checkered adjective: divided into a grid of squares of alternating colours or shades, or into light and dark patches. Also the simple past and past participle of checker.

checkered: divided into a grid of squares of alternating colours or shades, or into light and dark patches
Image: Glidden Tours, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

checkered (comparative more checkered, superlative most checkered)

  1. Divided into a grid of squares of alternating colours or shades, or into light and dark patches.
    • That is a checkered tablecloth.
  2. (figuratively) Changeable; inconsistent; having variations or uncertainty; marked by many problems or failures.
    • “What a checkered career!” said Newman.1876 October, Henry James, Jr., chapter XII, in The American, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], published 5 May 1877, →OCLC, page 197

Also used as

checkered is also the simple past and past participle of checker.

checkered meaning in Arabic, Malay, Persian and Myanmar

checkered in Arabic

divided into squares
مُرَبَّعَاتٍ murabbaʕātin
changeable; inconsistent; having variations or uncertainty; marked by many problems or failures
مُرِيب murīb, مَشْكُوك فِيهِ maškūk fīhi

checkered in Malay

divided into squares
gandan

checkered in Persian

divided into squares
چارخانه čârxâne

checkered in Myanmar

divided into squares
ကျား kya:

Forms of checkered

comparativemore checkered
superlativemost checkered
alternative UKchequered

Origin of checkered

From checker + -ed.

Words formed from checkered

Phrases with checkered

Questions about checkered

What does checkered mean?
Checkered means divided into a grid of squares of alternating colours or shades, or into light and dark patches.
What is checkered in Arabic?
Checkered in Arabic is مُرَبَّعَاتٍ (murabbaʕātin), مُرِيب (murīb), مَشْكُوك فِيهِ (maškūk fīhi). See Checkered meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is checkered?
Checkered is an adjective.

Words near checkered in the dictionary

  1. checkerboard rendering
  2. checkerboarded
  3. checkerboardedness
  4. checkerboarding
  5. checkerboards
  6. checkered
  7. checkered flag
  8. checkered flags
  9. checkering
  10. checkerings
  11. checkerist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: checkered (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-checkered.wav.

Cite this entry: “checkered.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/checkered. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.