olden
/ˈəʊl.dn̩/US/ˈoʊldn̩/
olden adjective: from or relating to a previous era.
Adjective
olden (not comparable)
- From or relating to a previous era.
- olden days, olden times
- "You are right to some extent in what you say. In the olden days people had a stronger belief in all kinds of witchery; now they pretend not to believe in it, that they may be looked upon as sensible and educated people, as you say."1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 156
- Synonyms:
- bygone
- Old; ancient.
- We […] told over the story of past sufferings, and renewed olden vows of devotion.1857, Martha Griffith Browne, Autobiography of a Female Slave, page 347
- Beowulf, behind his shield, thrust forth only his right arm. In it he had picked up the sword of Ing, well known in olden lore.1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 44
- Synonyms:
- auld
Verb
olden (third-person singular simple present oldens, present participle oldening, simple past and past participle oldened)
- To grow old; age; assume an older appearance or character; become affected by age.
- Of all Sedley's opponents in his debates with his creditors which now ensued, and harassed the feelings of the humiliated old gentleman so severely, that in six weeks he oldened more than he had done for fifteen years before—the most determined and obstinate seemed to be John Osborne, his old...1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC
- They were not worldly days; and so, as we olden with our passage through the world, they stay young, and we love them as pure youthful things are loved.1912, John Ayscough, Saints and Places, page 123
Proper noun capitalized: Olden
Olden (countable and uncountable, plural Oldens)
olden meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
olden in Tamil
- பழைய, பண்டைய, கடந்த, புராதன
olden in Urdu
- قدیم, پرانا
olden in Bengali
- প্রাচীন, সেকালের
Examples of olden in a sentence
- Anyone have any weird landmarks they often remember seeing along roads in the olden days?
- In olden days man fought Tyrannosaurus rex; nowadays he battles Tyrannosaurus regina—his wife.
- His olden courage is without reproach; Albeit his temper trends toward gaingiving!
Synonyms of olden
Antonyms
Forms of olden
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | oldens |
| present participle | oldening |
| past participle | oldened |
| past | oldened |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Oldens |
Origin of olden
From Middle English olden, probably originally an inflected plural form of old (compare Old English ealdum, dative plural of eald (“old”)), but later reanalysed as equivalent to old + -en (“made of”). Otherwise derived from Old Norse aldinn (“ancient, old”).
From old + -en (“to make (adjective)”).
Variant of Alden.
Words formed from olden
Phrases with olden
Words that rhyme with olden
Questions about olden
- What does olden mean?
- Olden means from or relating to a previous era.
- What is olden in Tamil?
- Olden in Tamil is பழைய, பண்டைய, கடந்த. See Olden meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is olden?
- Olden can be an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce olden?
- Olden is pronounced /ˈəʊl.dn̩/ (UK).
Words near olden in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: olden (page history and authors); Olden (page history and authors); olden (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); olden (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); olden (Bengali Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-olden.wav.
Cite this entry: “olden.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/olden. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.