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I am going through the following sentence.

I looked up at my boss and his eyes were rivetted on me

google search auto corrects it to riveted. One of the meaning to rivet from Oxford is

direct (one’s eyes or attention) intently

  1. rivetted (using double t - tt) is incorrect?
  2. In the above sentence what meaning best suits for rivetted?
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  • 3
    The single 't' is correct because in this case, doubling of the consonant is determined by stress; when the last syllable (having the 't') is stressed, the 't' gets doubled, otherwise it remains single.
    – Rayan Khan
    Commented May 7, 2021 at 11:11
  • @Decapitated Soul thanks for explanation of why riveted is correct
    – Rachayita
    Commented May 7, 2021 at 13:19
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    A rivet affixes two metals together. Eyes riveted means they were fixed on something powerfully.
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented May 7, 2021 at 20:29

2 Answers 2

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The Oxford English Dictionary lists both: riveted, rivetted. But it seems in both US and UK, riveted is currently the more common.

Ngram:
X

"direct (one’s eyes or attention) intently" matches the quotation given.

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  • thanks for Ngram. Before -1835 rivetted was used mostly as per Ngram. I will use riveted while writing.
    – Rachayita
    Commented May 7, 2021 at 13:24
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    I note that Shakespeare used the single-t version, despite being before 1835.
    – GEdgar
    Commented May 7, 2021 at 13:39
  • Shakespeare is great no doubt. For this question GEdgar(you) for providing Ngram and Decapitated Soul for providing the reason of Why riveted is correct are more than that to me.
    – Rachayita
    Commented May 7, 2021 at 23:08
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It should be riveted to be correct.

The rule for doubling a trailing T is when it's stressed. For example:

  • targeted - pronounced as TAR-ge-tid, same for targeting (marketed, marketing)
  • regretted - pronounced as ri-GRE-tid, same for regretting (admitted, admitting and for all single-syllable words like chat, plot, put, sit etc.)

Given rivet is pronounced as RI-vit (Wiktionary), riveted should not have double T. I would've spoken ri-VE-tid had I seen rivetted.

P.S. The same rule applies to a wide range of words ending in vowel + consonant, like cap, repel, rob, blur, etc.

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  • +1 for pointing out how "rivetted" commands a different pronunciation (ri•VET•id) and changes the meaning, as in to be "vetted" again.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented May 15, 2021 at 5:47

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