Word.ws English Dictionary

contemned

contemned is the simple past and past participle of contemn.

Meaning of contemn

Verb

contemn (third-person singular simple present contemns, present participle contemning, simple past and past participle contemned)

  1. (dated, transitive) To disdain; to value at little or nothing; to treat or regard with contempt.
    • The subject of the following History [...] is the unhappy Lives, and untimely Deaths, of that Unfortunate English King Edward the Second, and his two Favourites Gaveston and Spencer; for his immoderate love to whom, (Says Dr. Heylin) he was hated by the Nobles, and contemned by the Commons.c. 1620s, Elizabeth Cary [misattributed to Henry Cary], “The Preface”, in The History Of the most unfortunate Prince King Edward II. […] , London: A.G. and F. P., published 1680, page A3, verso
  2. To commit an offence of contempt, such as contempt of court; to unlawfully flout (e.g. a ruling).

Words formed from contemned

Questions about contemned

What is contemned the simple past and past participle of?
Contemned is the simple past and past participle of contemn.

Words near contemned in the dictionary

  1. contecks
  2. Conteh
  3. Contehs
  4. contemn
  5. contemn'd
  6. contemned
  7. contemner
  8. contemners
  9. contemnest
  10. contemneth
  11. contemnible

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: contemned (page history and authors); contemn (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “contemned.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/contemned. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.