Past tense of justify
regular verb
The past tense of justify is justified. The past participle is also justified.
Forms of justify
| Base form (V1) | justify /ˈd͡ʒʌstɪfaɪ/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | justified /ˈd͡ʒʌstɪfaɪd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | justified /ˈd͡ʒʌstɪfaɪd/ |
| Present participle | justifying |
| Third person singular | justifies |
Justified in a sentence
- Paying too much for car insurance is not justified.
- Preservation of two railway routes between Belfast and Derry could no longer be justified and one of them must go.1956 May, “Transport in Ulster”, in Railway Magazine, page 280
- Mirror punishments are often justified by the Biblical phrase 'an eye for an eye'.From the entry mirror punishment
- These additional checks at airports are justified in the name of security.From the entry in the name of
- The German war against Poland initiated by Hitler was justified as a preventive war by Carl Schmitt, German jurist and philosopher.From the entry preventive war
Meaning of justify
- verb To provide an acceptable explanation for.
- verb To be a good reason behind a normally-unacceptable action; to warrant.
- verb To arrange (text) on a page or a computer screen such that the left and right ends of all lines within paragraphs are aligned.
Questions about the past tense of justify
- What is the past tense of justify?
- The past tense of justify is justified.
- What is the past participle of justify?
- The past participle of justify is justified.
- Is justify a regular or irregular verb?
- Justify is a regular verb: its past tense changes -y to -ied.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: justify (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 justify.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/justify. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.