designed

Designed is the past tense and past participle of the verb design, and it also functions as an adjective in modern English. As a verb, design means to formulate a plan or intention for the creation or function of something, or to conceive and sketch the form, structure, or operation of an object or system. In this sense, something described as designed has been created with a deliberate plan or specification in mind. As an adjective, designed describes objects, systems, or actions made to achieve a particular purpose or to meet predefined requirements, such as a designed system for energy efficiency or designed obsolescence.

Etymology and usage notes help clarify its meaning. The word design originates from Latin designare, meaning to designate or mark out, through Old French designer, and into English in the medieval period. The past tense designed appears as the normal past form of the verb in Early Modern English and remains in common use today.

In practical contexts, designed commonly appears in engineering, product development, architecture, software, and graphic design. It signals that a process followed a plan, specification, or user needs rather than arising by chance. Phrases such as “designed for comfort,” “designed to scale,” and “design-driven development” reflect this emphasis on intent and structure. The term can also appear in critical discourse, for example in discussions of design flaws, intentional design choices, or concepts such as designed obsolescence, where a product's lifecycle is shaped by planned durability and replacement cycles.

See also: design, design process, product design, architectural design.