Established means firmly set up and recognized. When something is established, it has been around long enough to become stable, trusted, or accepted.

A store that's been in your town for fifty years is an established business. Your family's tradition of Sunday pancakes is an established routine. The rules of baseball are established because everyone agrees on them and they've worked the same way for generations.

Scientists talk about established facts, meaning things proven so thoroughly that experts agree they're true. In school, you might learn about established theories like gravity or evolution, which have mountains of evidence supporting them.

When you establish something, you create it and make it solid. A teacher might establish classroom rules on the first day of school. An explorer might establish a new settlement. The Constitution established the structure of the American government.

The word carries a sense of permanence and credibility. An established author has published multiple successful books. An established scientist has years of respected research. Once something becomes established, people take it seriously because it has proven itself over time.