past tense

noun

: a verb tense expressing action or state in or as if in the past:

: a verb tense expressive of elapsed time (such as wrote in "on arriving I wrote a letter")

: a verb tense expressing action or state in progress or continuance or habitually done or customarily occurring at a past time (such as was writing in "I was writing while he dictated" or loved in "their sons loved fishing")

Examples of past tense in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web After forcing himself to use past tense to refer to Ducky, Palmer grabs his detailed case journals so the team can go through them looking for Zawadski’s entry. —

Sara Netzley, EW.com, 20 Feb. 2024 Spoke—either a past tense of speak or a part of a wheel—slashed that number to just two. —

Erik Kain, Forbes, 27 Nov. 2023 Even some of Newsom’s usual allies found this pandering ham-fisted, and more than a little insulting to Feinstein, just short of talking about her in past tense. —

The Editors, National Review, 5 Oct. 2023 Stories can be told in the present tense, and then reviewed using past tense forms. —

Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep. 2023 See all Example Sentences for past tense

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'past tense.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.