Word.ws English Dictionary

Past tense of discover

regular verb

The past tense of discover is discovered. The past participle is also discovered.

Forms of discover

Base form (V1)discover /dɪˈskʌvə/
Past tense (V2)discovered /dɪsˈkʌvəd/
Past participle (V3)discovered /dɪsˈkʌvəd/
Present participlediscovering /dɪsˈkʌvəɹɪŋ/
Third person singulardiscovers

Discovered in a sentence

  • Turning the corner, I discovered a lovely little shop. I discovered that they sold widgets.
  • All this has led to an explosion of protest across China, including among a middle class that has discovered nimbyism.2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848
  • I've discovered why the TV wasn't working – the plug wasn't in!From the entry in
  • When the financial irregularities were discovered, the CEO gagged everyone in the accounting department.From the entry gag
  • When I logged in to the social network, I discovered I'd been hacked.From the entry hack

Meaning of discover

  1. verb To find or learn something for the first time.
  2. verb To remove the cover from; to uncover (a head, building etc.).
  3. verb To expose, uncover.

Full definition of discover

Questions about the past tense of discover

What is the past tense of discover?
The past tense of discover is discovered.
What is the past participle of discover?
The past participle of discover is discovered.
Is discover a regular or irregular verb?
Discover is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: discover (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “Past tense of discover.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/discover. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.