Ladened

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Weighed down or burdened by something heavy being carried or borne
2. Loaded heavily with cargo, goods, or some other substantial burden
3. Overburdened with a weight, responsibility, or supply of something carried

Etymology: "Ladened" is simply the past tense and past participle of "laden", so the real story belongs to the verb it comes from. "Laden" is an older form of "load" in its participle use, and the root sense is the same idea of putting a burden on something. The verb "lade" is the base it grows from, and that verb ties back to the familiar sense of loading a cargo or a weight onto a vessel or a beast. The surprising part is how thoroughly the two forms have split. "Load" took over almost all of the everyday work, while "laden" survived as an adjective-like word for something carrying a heavy weight, as in "laden with fruit" or "laden with guilt." Adding "-ed" to "laden" gives "ladened," a form that is rare in modern writing, since most speakers reach for "laden" or "loaded" instead. The -ed ending here is a regular English past tense applied to a verb that already had a participle, which is why the word sounds slightly unusual today.

Synonyms: loaded, burdened

Antonyms: unloaded, unburdened