British spelling of 'centered'. Having a center or focal point; balanced around a central point. Past tense of 'centre', meaning to place in or at the center.
From Latin centrum (center), from Greek kentron (sharp point, center of a circle). The British spelling with '-re' preserves the French influence, while American English changed to '-er' following Noah Webster's spelling reforms in the early 1800s.
The spelling difference between 'centred' and 'centered' reflects a broader pattern in British vs. American English, where words like theatre/theater and metre/meter show the same variation. This wasn't arbitrary - Webster deliberately chose spellings that were more phonetic and less French-influenced.
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