What does jetted mean?
Jetted is the past tense and past participle of the verb jet, used especially for an aircraft that flies or moves quickly. It can also describe liquid or gas issuing from a narrow opening in a forceful stream, as in a pipe that jetted water into the air. The word has a separate adjectival use meaning jet-black: dark, glossy, and black like the material traditionally known as jet. In ordinary contemporary use, jetted most often conveys speed and modern air travel, giving it a distinctly dynamic feel. The black adjective is less frequent and has a literary or poetic quality. Although the form looks unusual because it ends in -ed, it behaves like any regular English past form and appears in constructions such as "the aircraft jetted away" or "the aircraft has jetted across the country."
Traveled or moved rapidly in a jet aircraft; moved or issued in a sudden, forceful stream.
"The private plane jetted toward the coast as soon as it left the runway."
The past tense and past participle of jet. The aircraft sense is especially common in journalism and informal narrative.
Jet-black; black, dark, and glossy.
"The singer wore a coat with jetted, glossy buttons."
Literary and relatively uncommon; it is normally more natural in literary descriptions than in everyday speech.
Jetted can describe a plane streaking through the sky, a fountain forceful enough to spray, or hair as dark and glossy as jet.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does jetted come from?
The verb belongs to the modern English word jet, which developed through French and Italian from a word for a fountain or forceful stream of water and ultimately from Latin iactare, meaning "to throw." The same development supplied related words such as jettison, while the French ballet term jeté preserves the idea of a thrown or projected movement. The adjective sense developed from the traditional use of jet as a hard, lustrous black material, so jetted black came to mean black like jet.
Related word forms
How jetted is actually used
As a verb, jetted is chiefly the past tense and past participle of jet and is especially associated with rapid travel by aircraft. As an adjective, it is literary and generally appears in expressions such as jetted hair or jetted black.
Easily confused with jetted
Jetted is the past form of jet, whereas jettison means to throw something away, especially from an aircraft or ship.