Intended means planned or meant to happen in a particular way. When something is intended, someone designed it or aimed for it on purpose, not by accident.

If a teacher gives you an assignment intended to help you practice multiplication, she created it specifically for that purpose. When an author writes a book intended for young readers, she carefully chooses words and stories that kids will understand and enjoy. The intended audience is the group of people something was made for.

The word often appears when things don't go as planned. You might say “that's not what I intended” after accidentally deleting your homework file, or “the intended effect didn't happen” when a science experiment goes differently than expected.

Sometimes people talk about intended consequences versus unintended consequences. If you stay up late to finish reading an exciting book (the intended consequence), you might also wake up tired the next morning (an unintended consequence you didn't plan for).