résulté

Résulté is a French term that can function in two related ways, though it is far less common in contemporary use than the related noun résultat.

As a past participle, résultat is the form that appears in conjugated tenses with the auxiliary être for the verb résulter, meaning to come about or to arise as a consequence. In this role, résulté (masculine singular) and résultée (feminine singular) form part of a full set of participles for agreement with the subject in compound tenses, with plural forms résultés and résultées. The participle is used in sentences that describe something that has resulted from something else, for example in formal or written French.

As a noun, résulte is very rarely used in modern French. The standard word for “result” is résultat. When résulte appears as a noun, it is typically found only in older or highly technical contexts and may be considered archaic or stylistically unusual today. In everyday language, readers and listeners are far more likely to encounter “résultat” to denote an outcome, consequence, or product of an action or calculation.

Etymology and related terms: résulter comes from Latin resultare, through Old French, with résultat and résulat(e) forming part of the same lexical family. The frequent modern usage for naming an outcome is toujours résultat, whereas résulter’s past participle forms retain specialized, largely grammatical functions.

See also: résultat, résulter, linguistics of participles.