What does frozen mean?
Frozen is the past participle of the verb 'to freeze', describing anything that has turned to ice or been made hard and unyielding by cold. Its reach extends well beyond weather and winter ponds: a salary can be frozen, bank accounts can be frozen by court order, a computer screen can be frozen mid-task, and a person's face can be frozen in fear or surprise. This figurative flexibility makes the word a staple of everyday speech, journalism, and technical writing alike. Etymologically ancient, frozen descends from Old English through the Germanic language family, making it a close cousin of the word 'frost'. Whether applied to food, finances, or facial expressions, frozen reliably conveys stillness, preservation, and suspension — the sense of something held motionless until conditions change and thaw sets in.
Turned into or covered with ice; hardened or immobile due to extreme cold, or figuratively locked in place and unable to move, act, or change.
"The pipes burst because the water inside them had frozen."
Applied literally to liquids, food, and landscapes, and figuratively to money, prices, screens, and facial expressions.
The past participle form of the verb 'to freeze', indicating that freezing has already occurred, often combined with auxiliary verbs ('has frozen', 'was frozen').
"By dawn the harbor was frozen over."
Used in perfect tenses and passive constructions, and frequently functions attributively as an adjective.
Your freezer's 'frozen peas' owe their name to a word so old it appears in Old English before the Norman Conquest — and its cousin 'frost' has been chilling English sentences for over a thousand years.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of frozen
Frozen is the past participle of the Old English strong verb frēosan, which meant to freeze or congeal with cold. The verb belongs to the Germanic language family, sharing a common ancestor with the Old Norse word for freezing and with modern German frieren, and it is closely related to the English word frost, drawn from the same ancient root. Because the verb was originally 'strong' — changing its stem vowel rather than adding endings to mark tense — frozen carries the distinctive vowel shift typical of such old verbs.
Related word forms
How frozen is actually used
Frozen works both literally (ice, food, weather) and figuratively (money, salaries, screens, expressions). In computing contexts, 'frozen' signals an unresponsive interface; in finance, 'frozen assets' cannot be accessed or traded. It is standard in both British and American English.
Easily confused with frozen
'Freeze' is the verb meaning to turn into ice or become immobilized, while 'frozen' is its completed past participle form used adjectivally ('the pipes freeze; the pipes are frozen').