Past tense of exist
regular verb
The past tense of exist is existed. The past participle is also existed.
Forms of exist
| Base form (V1) | exist /ɪɡˈzɪst/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | existed /ɪɡˈzɪstɪd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | existed /ɪɡˈzɪstɪd/ |
| Present participle | existing /ɪɡˈzɪstɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | exists /ɪɡˈzɪsts/ |
Existed in a sentence
- Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically.From the entry historically
- In the fifteenth century, he espoused ecology ante litteram. He endorsed ecology before the term "ecology" existed.From the entry ante litteram
- The concept has existed since times unknown.From the entry unknown
- The plural form of this noun must surely have existed in the speech of medieval farmers, although it is unattested in surviving books from the period.From the entry unattested
- Moral panics have existed since well before the Salem witch trials — perhaps the paradigm case.2023 June 29, Pamela Paul, “Do Not Panic. It’s Just a Moral Panic.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry moral panic
Meaning of exist
- verb To be; have existence; have being or reality.
Questions about the past tense of exist
- What is the past tense of exist?
- The past tense of exist is existed.
- What is the past participle of exist?
- The past participle of exist is existed.
- Is exist a regular or irregular verb?
- Exist is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: exist (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.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of exist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/exist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.