Word.ws English Dictionary

Past tense of lack

regular verb

The past tense of lack is lacked. The past participle is also lacked.

Forms of lack

Base form (V1)lack /læk/
Past tense (V2)lacked /lækt/
Past participle (V3)lacked /lækt/
Present participlelacking /ˈlækɪŋ/
Third person singularlacks /læks/

Lacked in a sentence

  • The house of delegates in apartheid-era South Africa lacked any real voting power.From the entry delegate
  • The author’s novels from her salad years lacked the sophistication and depth of her later works.From the entry salad year
  • He said he could do it, but the flutter in his voice told me he lacked confidence.From the entry flutter
  • Before the renovation the hotel lacked the human touch to attract visitors.From the entry human touch
  • The letter lacked a ring of authenticity that would settle her doubts.From the entry ring of authenticity

Meaning of lack

  1. noun A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want, dearth.
  2. noun A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.
  3. verb To be without, not to have, to need, to require.

Full definition of lack

Questions about the past tense of lack

What is the past tense of lack?
The past tense of lack is lacked.
What is the past participle of lack?
The past participle of lack is lacked.
Is lack a regular or irregular verb?
Lack is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lack (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 lack.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/lack. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.