Titled

Titled is the past participle of the verb title and an adjective meaning “having a title” or “bearing a specified title.” It is used to identify a work or object by its given name. For example, in the sentence “The novel titled ‘The Road’ won several awards,” the phrase specifies the work by its title rather than by the author’s name. In general usage, titled helps distinguish items when the title is the most identifying feature.

Etymology: The noun title comes from Latin titulus, via Old French titre. The verb to title, meaning to give a title to something, developed in English to express the act of assigning a title to a work or object.

Usage notes: When using titled as a modifier before a noun, a construction such as “a work titled ‘Dune’” is preferred over “a titled work.” For punctuation, apply standard conventions: shorter works (poems, articles) are typically placed in quotation marks, while longer works (books, films) are usually italicized. The adjective sense of titled should not be confused with a person’s name; it specifically references the title given to a work or item rather than its author or designer.

Synonyms and related terms: Named, called, designated, christened. In cataloging and scholarly writing, titled is a precise way to indicate the official name of a work, reducing ambiguity with personal names or alternative descriptors.

See also: Title (linguistics), Naming, Cataloging.