Past tense of mean
irregular verb
The past tense of mean is meant. The past participle is also meant.
Forms of mean
| Base form (V1) | mean /miːn/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | meant /mɛnt/ |
| Past participle (V3) | meant /mɛnt/ |
| Present participle | meaning /ˈmiː.nɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | means /miːnz/ |
Meant in a sentence
- I meant to take the car in for a smog check, but it slipped my mind.
- The authors meant a challenge to the status quo.
- When he described the settlers' dominance as accomplished, he meant that it was a fait accompli.From the entry accomplished
- I meant to pause the picture, but hit the rewind by mistake.From the entry rewind
- Throwing that punch was a murder whether you meant for it to happen or not.From the entry murder
Meaning of mean
- verb To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention.
- verb To have as intentions of a given kind.
- verb To intend (something) for a given purpose or fate; to predestine.
Verbs like mean
Questions about the past tense of mean
- What is the past tense of mean?
- The past tense of mean is meant.
- What is the past participle of mean?
- The past participle of mean is meant.
- Is mean a regular or irregular verb?
- Mean is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mean (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 mean.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/mean. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.