signed
- 1Simple past and past participle of sign.
The author signed every book before the store opened.
The two countries signed a peace agreement last spring.
Note
One spelling serves both the plain past (she signed) and the participle after have or be (has signed, was signed). The verb takes several constructions: you sign a document, sign your name, or simply sign at the bottom. An archaic meaning, sealing a document with an identifying symbol, sits beside the modern ones, all from an old sense of making a mark. The participle also settled into the adjective for signed documents.
- 2Bearing a person's signature as a mark of approval, authorship, or formal agreement.
A signed first edition sells for far more than an unsigned copy.
She kept the signed agreement in a locked drawer for safekeeping.
UsageOften signed by someone, and in the pair signed and dated: a print signed by the artist.
Similarautographed
Oppositeunsigned
- 3Equipped with signs and signposts that mark and guide the way along a route.
The route is well signed, so drivers can find their way without a map.
The mountain trail is signed all the way to the summit.
UsageUsually with an adverb that says how well: well signed, clearly signed, poorly signed.
Oppositeunmarked
Note
A word for roads, routes and trails, not for the signs themselves. Backpacking Wyoming (2010) warns hikers about "poorly signed Highway 292." Signposted means the same thing, and signed is the shorter of the pair.
Less common meanings
- 4Expressed in a sign language rather than in speech, or interpreted into a sign language for deaf audiences.
The theater offers a signed performance of the play every Thursday evening.
The deaf students gave signed answers, which an interpreter voiced for the panel.
Note
Theater and broadcast listings use it for interpreted events: a signed performance has an interpreter putting the spoken words into sign language. It comes from sign as a verb meaning to communicate in sign language, and it sits beside captioned and subtitled as ways of making speech accessible. Context keeps it apart from the signature meaning, where a signed copy carries an autograph.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Signed in the sign-language sense comes from the verb sign, meaning to communicate in sign language. en.wiktionary.org
- 5Capable of representing both positive and negative values, rather than only zero and positive values.
A signed integer can store values from a negative limit up to a positive one.
The variable must be signed if the calculation can produce a negative result.
Oppositeunsigned
Note
Mathematics and computer science share this word, and here the sign is plus or minus. In arithmetic it describes the numbers themselves: once a class tries to subtract 3 from 1, it needs signed numbers to reach minus 2. In programming it describes a type, as in signed integer or signed variable. Do not confuse it with the signature meaning. Both go back to sign, but they are separate meanings.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Subtracting 3 from 1 requires a negative number and gives minus 2. en.wiktionary.org
- The senses are distinct but historically related: the noun sign and the signature verb sign ultimately derive from Latin signum, meaning a mark or sign. en.wiktionary.org
Showing meanings only.
signed is a form of sign
sign, verb: To write one's signature on a document, register, or other item, to make it valid, agree to it, or identify oneself. Full entry
- Spelling
- sign → signed: add -ed
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /d/.
Practice
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