Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Withheld for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is withheld — a verb, pronounced widh-HELD, IPA /wɪðˈheld/.
Narrator: Withheld is the past tense and past participle of withhold — to have held something back, or refused to give or release it.
Narrator: It comes from the Old English withhealdan — with, meaning back or against, plus healdan, to hold. Literally, to hold back.
Narrator: When something is withheld, it is deliberately kept back — information withheld, payment withheld, consent withheld.
Narrator: It often appears in formal and legal contexts — tax withheld at source, a name withheld for privacy.
Narrator: It can also describe emotion held in — she withheld her tears, he withheld his anger.
Narrator: The register is neutral to formal, common in law, finance, and careful everyday writing.
Narrator: Close synonyms include kept back and retained, but withheld stresses a deliberate refusal to release.
Narrator: Withheld is what we hold back on purpose — kept just out of reach.
Speaker A: They withheld my deposit until the flat was inspected — held it back until everything checked out.
Speaker B: That's withheld exactly — money kept back deliberately. Past tense of withhold, with that double-held ending.
Speaker A: And the report had one name withheld for privacy.
Speaker B: A very common use — information withheld to protect someone. Held back on purpose, not by accident.
Speaker A: I sometimes want to write withholded, though.
Speaker B: That's the classic slip. It's irregular — withhold, withheld, withheld. Never withholded. Like hold, held.
Speaker A: What's the difference between withheld and retained?
Speaker B: Retained simply means kept — you retained the documents. Withheld means kept back from someone who wanted or expected it. Withheld carries that sense of refusal; retained is just holding on.
Speaker A: So withheld implies someone was denied something.
Speaker B: Exactly. And the spelling — w-i-t-h-h-e-l-d, with two h's in the middle. People often drop one.
Speaker B: Let's look at how withheld works in AI prompts. As a status it's superb for payments, permissions, and privacy.
Speaker A: Withheld as a status — marking something deliberately held back?
Speaker B: Exactly. First prompt — a payroll tool:
Prompt: Build a payroll tool that shows tax withheld. For each payslip, calculate the tax withheld, label it clearly as withheld, and total the withheld amount across the year.
Speaker B: Withheld names the held-back amount precisely — the AI builds clear deduction tracking around it.
Speaker A: The payroll sense is clear. What about privacy?
Speaker B: Here:
Prompt: Build a report viewer where some fields are withheld for privacy. Mask each withheld field with a lock icon, label it Withheld, and only reveal it to authorised users.
Speaker A: Withheld fields — practical. For a database?
Speaker B: Try this:
Prompt: Design a payments table with a withheld amount and a reason. Index the withheld flag so a report can total every withheld payment and show why each was held back.
Speaker A: Withheld as a stored field — tidy. For approvals?
Speaker B: Like this:
Prompt: Build an approval flow where funds can be withheld. Let a manager mark a payment withheld with a note, show withheld items in amber, and release them once approved.
Speaker A: Withheld approvals — clear. And for a refund tool?
Speaker B: Here:
Prompt: Build a refund tool that shows any amount withheld. Display the full price, the amount withheld for fees, and the final refund, so the customer sees exactly what was withheld.
Speaker A: Withheld refund breakdown — transparent.
Speaker B: One word for something held back on purpose. Use withheld in a prompt for payments, privacy, and approvals.
Withheld — meaning in Arabic & definition More W courses GL Dictionary