Past tense of light
irregular verb
The past tense of light is lit or lighted. The past participle is also lit or lighted.
Forms of light
| Base form (V1) | light /laɪt/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | lit /ˈlɪt/ lighted /ˈlaɪtəd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | lit /ˈlɪt/ lighted /ˈlaɪtəd/ |
| Present participle | lighting /ˈlaɪtɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | lights /laɪts/ |
Past tense of light by meaning
- to start (a fire).: lit or lighted
- to unload a ship, or to jettison material to make it lighter.: lighted
Lit and lighted in a sentence
- We lit the fire to get some heat.
- She lit her last match.
- She turned the gas on, put the potatoes on, then lit the oven.From the entry gas
- The waiter’s face lit up when I gave him a twenty.From the entry twenty
- Thunder boomed in the distance and lightning flashes lit up the horizon.From the entry boom
Meaning of light
- noun Electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range visible to the human eye (about 400–750 nanometers): visible light.
- noun Electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range visible to the human eye or in nearby ranges (infrared or ultraviolet radiation).
- noun Electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength.
Verbs like light
- bite (bit)
Questions about the past tense of light
- What is the past tense of light?
- The past tense of light is lit or lighted.
- What is the past participle of light?
- The past participle of light is lit or lighted.
- Is light a regular or irregular verb?
- Light is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: light (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 light.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/light. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.