Word.ws English Dictionary

Past tense of overtake

irregular verb

The past tense of overtake is overtook. The past participle is overtaken.

Forms of overtake

Base form (V1)overtake /əʊ̯vəːˈteɪ̯k/
Past tense (V2)overtook /oʊ.vɚˈtʊk/
Past participle (V3)overtaken /ˈəʊvəɹteɪkən/
Present participleovertaking
Third person singularovertakes

Overtook and overtaken in a sentence

  • The racehorse overtook the lead pack on the last turn.
  • The car was so slow we were overtaken by a bus.
  • Within a few hours, the posse overtook the thieves.1986, Donald R. Lavash, Sheriff William Brady, Tragic Hero of the Lincoln County War, Sunstone Press, →ISBN, page 77. From the entry posse
  • Just south of Wamphray station they overtook the runaway.1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, page 54. From the entry huddle
  • Just south of Wamphray Station, they overtook the runaway.1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, page 54. From the entry runaway

Meaning of overtake

  1. verb To pass a slower moving object or entity (on the side closest to oncoming traffic).
  2. verb To become greater than something else in quantity, worth, etc.
  3. verb To take by surprise; surprise and overcome; carry away.

Full definition of overtake

Verbs like overtake

Questions about the past tense of overtake

What is the past tense of overtake?
The past tense of overtake is overtook.
What is the past participle of overtake?
The past participle of overtake is overtaken.
Is overtake a regular or irregular verb?
Overtake is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.

Source and license

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