- a variation of past tense.
past
Americanadjective
-
gone by or elapsed in time.
It was a bad time, but it's all past now.
-
of, having existed in, or having occurred during a time previous to the present; bygone.
the past glories of the Incas.
-
gone by just before the present time; just passed.
during the past year.
-
ago.
six days past.
-
having formerly been or served as; previous; earlier.
three past presidents of the club.
-
Grammar. designating a tense, or other verb formation or construction, that refers to events or states in time gone by.
noun
-
pasts
plural
-
the time gone by.
He could remember events far back in the past.
-
the history of a person, nation, etc..
our country's glorious past.
-
what has existed or has happened at some earlier time.
Try to forget the past, now that your troubles are over.
-
the events, phenomena, conditions, etc., that characterized an earlier historical period.
That hat is something out of the past.
-
an earlier period of a person's life, career, etc., that is thought to be of a shameful or embarrassing nature.
When he left prison, he put his past behind him.
-
Grammar. past tense.
adverb
preposition
-
beyond in time; later than; after.
past noon;
half past six.
-
beyond in space or position; farther on than.
the house just past the church.
-
in a direction so as to pass by or go beyond.
We went past the house by mistake.
-
beyond in amount, number, etc..
past the maximum age for enlisting in the army.
-
beyond the reach, scope, influence, or power of.
He is past hope of recovery.
adjective
-
completed, finished, and no longer in existence
past happiness
-
denoting or belonging to all or a segment of the time that has elapsed at the present moment
the past history of the world
-
denoting a specific unit of time that immediately precedes the present one
the past month
-
(prenominal) denoting a person who has held and relinquished an office or position; former
a past president
-
grammar denoting any of various tenses of verbs that are used in describing actions, events, or states that have been begun or completed at the time of utterance Compare aorist imperfect perfect
noun
-
the period of time or a segment of it that has elapsed
forget the past
-
the history, experience, or background of a nation, person, etc
a soldier with a distinguished past
-
an earlier period of someone's life, esp one that contains events kept secret or regarded as disreputable
-
grammar
-
a past tense
-
a verb in a past tense
-
adverb
-
at a specified or unspecified time before the present; ago
three years past
-
on or onwards
I greeted him but he just walked past
preposition
-
beyond in time
it's past midnight
-
beyond in place or position
the library is past the church
-
moving beyond; in a direction that passes
he walked past me
-
beyond or above the reach, limit, or scope of
his foolishness is past comprehension
-
beyond or above in number or amount
to count past ten
-
informal unable to perform the tasks one could do when one was younger
-
to consider someone capable of (the action specified)
Usage
The past participle of pass is sometimes wrongly spelt past: the time for recriminations has passed (not past )
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of past
First recorded in 1250–1300; from Middle English, variant spelling of passed, past participle of pass
Explanation
Past events have already happened — if it happened an Ice Age ago, a century ago, or even a minute ago, it's in the past. They say the past is history and it's true. If you have ever been accused of "living in the past," you cling to what was instead of reveling in what is. If you hear that a person or a rare object in an antique store "has a past," get ready for a colorful story. As an adjective, past describes what is no longer current, like the past president of a club or past fashion craze — it's over: its time has passed.
Vocabulary lists containing past
Conventions, Writing to Sources, and Speaking & Listening, Unit 1
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Conventions, Writing to Sources, and Speaking & Listening (Unit 1)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Harry has talked in the past about mending fences with his father and how he wants his two children, 7-year-old Archie and 5-year-old Lilibet, to know Britain better.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Over the past few weeks players have been shown clips of two incidents which were not penalties last season, but would be given under the new guidelines.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
For many Cameroonians, however, Biya's repeated absences over the past two decades have become a source of growing frustration.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
However, the SSA currently does not provide the same detailed, real-time metrics as it did in the past, instead providing only snapshots of its performance, which makes it difficult to verify the improvements, critics said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
A couple of kids race past us in hot pursuit of a rez dog with a piece of frybread in its mouth.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
But instead of gossiping about who’s dating whom, collaborators batted around their pasts and infused the darkly comedic anthology series with themes of samsara and the Jungian Shadow.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
As a result, the state takes few steps to protect students from private school educators with troubled pasts.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
Both have pasts you wouldn’t put on a Tinder profile.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
It was vital for the police to know if all those injuries could have been caused by someone defending themselves - they needed to understand more about the two men's pasts.
From BBC ● Feb. 28, 2026
What sort of calculation would their neighbors make, weighing all the promises of their new circumstances against the allegations and the truth of their own pasts?
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.