Word.ws English Dictionary

dwelt

/ˈdwɛlt/

dwelt is the simple past and past participle of dwell.

Meaning of dwell

Verb

dwell (third-person singular simple present dwells, present participle dwelling, simple past and past participle dwelt or (chiefly US) dwelled)

  1. (intransitive, literary) To live; to reside.
    • I am fully resolved to go dwell in another house.1622, Henry Peacham (Jr.), The Compleat Gentleman
  2. (intransitive) To linger (on); to remain fixated.
    • Stop dwelling on the past!
  3. (intransitive) To be in a given state.
  4. (intransitive) To abide; to remain; to continue.
    • My liefe (ſayd ſhe) ye know, that long ygo, / Whileſt ye in durance dwelt, ye to me gaue / A little mayde, the which ye chylded tho ; / The ſame againe if now ye liſt to haue, / The ſame is yonder Lady, whom high God did ſaue.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 17, page 512

See all 8 meanings of dwell

Words formed from dwelt

Phrases with dwelt

Words that rhyme with dwelt

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dwelt

What is dwelt the simple past and past participle of?
Dwelt is the simple past and past participle of dwell.
How do you pronounce dwelt?
Dwelt is pronounced /ˈdwɛlt/.

Words near dwelt in the dictionary

  1. dwellinghouses
  2. dwellings
  3. dwells
  4. dwells upon
  5. Dwelly
  6. dwelt
  7. dwelt upon
  8. dwelves
  9. DWEM
  10. DWEMs
  11. dweomer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dwelt (page history and authors); dwell (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.

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