Word.ws English Dictionary

engraven

UK/ɛnˈɡɹeɪvən/

engraven is the past participle of engrave.

Meaning of engrave

Verb (1)

engrave (third-person singular simple present engraves, present participle engraving, simple past and past participle engraved)

  1. (transitive) To carve text or symbols into (something), usually for the purposes of identification or art.
    • He engraved the plaque with his name.
  2. (transitive) To carve (something) into a material.
    • He engraved his name.

Verb (2)

engrave (third-person singular simple present engraves, present participle engraving, simple past and past participle engraved)

  1. (obsolete) To put in a grave, to bury.
    • So both agree their bodies to engraue; / The great earthes wombe they open to the sky [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Verb

engraven (third-person singular simple present engravens, present participle engravening, simple past and past participle engravened)

  1. (figuratively, literary, obsolete) Engrave.

Forms of engraven

third-person singular presentengravens
present participleengravening
past participleengravened
pastengravened

Origin of engraven

From engrave + -en.

From grave + en- -en; Alteration of engrave, influenced by verbs formed with the circumfix en- -en.

Questions about engraven

What does engraven mean?
Engraven means engrave.
What is engraven the past participle of?
Engraven is the past participle of engrave.
What part of speech is engraven?
Engraven is a verb.
How do you pronounce engraven?
Engraven is pronounced /ɛnˈɡɹeɪvən/ (UK).
What is the past tense of engraven?
The past tense of engraven is engravened.

Words near engraven in the dictionary

  1. engravable
  2. engrave
  3. engraved
  4. engravement
  5. engravements
  6. engraven
  7. engravened
  8. engravening
  9. engravens
  10. engraver
  11. engraveries

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: engraven (page history and authors); engrave (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: “engraven.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/engraven. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.