past tense
noun
: a verb tense expressing action or state in or as if in the past:
a
: a verb tense expressive of elapsed time (such as wrote in "on arriving I wrote a letter")
b
: 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
Both books are told in the third-person past tense, and both take place over the course of a few months.
—
Literary Hub, 4 June 2025
There are so many real beauties in it, like this couplet:
Even present tense has some of the grace of past tense, what with all the present tense left to go.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 4 June 2025
Defendant referred to victim in past tense, detective testifies
Cousins’ status as a possible suspect was strengthened by his inadvertent language missteps in his first interview with a Fort Worth Police Department Homicide Unit detective, the jury learned on Tuesday.
—Emerson Clarridge, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 17 Apr. 2025
Today’s Wordle Etymology Chose is the simple past tense of choose.
—Erik Kain, Forbes, 1 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for past tense
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Literary Hub, 4 June 2025
There are so many real beauties in it, like this couplet:
Even present tense has some of the grace of past tense, what with all the present tense left to go.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 4 June 2025
Defendant referred to victim in past tense, detective testifies
Cousins’ status as a possible suspect was strengthened by his inadvertent language missteps in his first interview with a Fort Worth Police Department Homicide Unit detective, the jury learned on Tuesday.
—Emerson Clarridge, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 17 Apr. 2025
Today’s Wordle Etymology Chose is the simple past tense of choose.
—Erik Kain, Forbes, 1 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for past tense
Cite this Entry
“Past tense.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/past%20tense. Accessed 18 Jun. 2025.
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