sped

Pluralspeds

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of speed.

   The ambulance sped through the intersection with its lights flashing.

   Years had sped by before she finally returned to the village.

   Note

   Two past forms compete here, and they tend to split the work. Sped goes with rapid motion: the car sped away, the hours sped by. Speeded tends to appear when the verb means making something go faster, especially in speeded up. Either form works as past tense or participle, so had sped and had speeded are both grammatical. The school-slang slur has the same spelling but is an unrelated word.

2. 2
   nounslangderogatoryoffensivecountable

   A derogatory and offensive slang term for a student who receives special education.

   The bullies taunted him, calling him a sped whenever no teacher was nearby.

   She felt sick after hearing her own son labeled a sped by his classmates.

   Note

   A slur built from SPED, the shortened name for special education, which turns the name of a school program into an insult. It is offensive whatever the speaker intends, and it lands hardest on children. In neutral writing, say a student in special education or a student who receives special education services. Avoid the lowercase noun when it is aimed at a person.

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