What does builded mean?
"Builded" is an archaic past tense and past participle of the verb "build," meaning constructed or erected. It appears frequently in older English literature, including the King James Bible, hymnody, and nineteenth-century poetry, where its slightly weightier sound suited elevated or solemn subject matter. In form it is a curious hybrid: because "build" forms its standard past tense irregularly as "built," adding the regular -ed ending produces a doubled marking that later generations came to regard as redundant. By the modern era "builded" had all but disappeared from ordinary speech and writing, surviving only in quotations, liturgical echoes, and deliberate archaism. A writer who reaches for it today does so knowingly, trading clarity for a flavor of antiquity. For readers, encountering "builded" is usually a signal that a text is either old, religious, poetic, or playfully imitating any of these styles rather than a sign of error.
verb (archaic past tense and past participle of 'build')An archaic or literary past tense and past participle of the verb "build," meaning constructed or erected. Largely obsolete in modern usage, it survives chiefly in older texts, hymns, poetry, and deliberately archaic prose.
- Archaic past tense and past participle of "build": having been constructed or erected.
"The cathedral was builded stone by stone across three centuries."
"They builded an altar upon the mountaintop."
"The city that our forefathers builded still stands today."
"Builded" already contains the past-tense ending -ed on top of the irregular form "built" — making it a rare linguistic fossil of speakers hedging their bets between regular and irregular grammar.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of builded
The verb "build" descends from Middle English "bild(en)" or "buld(en)," from Old English "byldan," meaning to construct a dwelling, which itself derives from "bold," meaning a house or dwelling place. The form "builded" arose through the regular English habit of forming past tenses with -ed, competing with the irregular contracted form "built" throughout the Middle English and Early Modern English periods. Its cognates include Dutch "bouwen" and German "bauen," both meaning to build or dwell, and more distantly English words such as "bower" and "booth," which trace back to related Germanic roots denoting dwellings.
Related word forms
How builded is actually used
"Builded" belongs to formal, poetic, biblical, or deliberately antique registers and would strike modern readers as stilted in everyday prose. Standard contemporary English uses "built." Writers sometimes choose "builded" for stylistic effect, echoing the language of the King James Bible.
Easily confused with builded
"Built" is the standard modern past tense and participle of "build," while "builded" is an archaic double-marked form that has fallen out of ordinary use.