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past

noun · adjective · adverb

Simple meaning

The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

past
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

pæst

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future.

  2. The time that has elapsed

adjective

  1. Earlier than the present time; no longer current

  2. Of a period of time: having just gone by; previous.

  3. Having already happened; in the past; finished.

adverb

  1. In a direction that passes.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future.

Used this way, past is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • past tense , a specialist term, precise but narrower

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use past

  • “Every hour a train goes past.”adverb
  • “Reporters dug into the candidate's past.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Period / earlier

past yearpast decade

Other combinations

half pastpast tensepast twopast experiencepast threepast ten

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • pastornounPerson or profession

    A person authorized to conduct religious worship.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • past timesnounCompound term

    The time that has elapsed.

  • past tensenounCompound term

    A verb tense that expresses actions or states in the past.

  • past progressive tensenounCompound term

    A progressive tense used to describe on-going action in the past.

  • past progressivenounCompound term

    A progressive tense used to describe on-going action in the past.

  • past perfect tensenounCompound term

    A perfective tense used to express action completed in the past.

  • past perfectnounCompound term

    A perfective tense used to express action completed in the past.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • paste-upnounRelated term

    A composition of flat objects pasted on a board or other backing.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

noun

Sense: period of time that has already happened

past tenseTechnicalbygone

adjective

Sense: earlier than the present time

bygonerecenthistoric

Antonyms

Sense: period of time that has already happened

futurehereafterfuturity

Commonly Confused With

passedPassed vs. PastKnow the difference

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.