Past tense of play
regular verb
The past tense of play is played. The past participle is also played.
Forms of play
| Base form (V1) | play /pleɪ̯/ [pɫ̥eɪ̯ ~ pʰɫeɪ̯] |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | played /pleɪd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | played /pleɪd/ |
| Present participle | playing /ˈpleɪ.ɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | plays /pleɪz/ |
Played in a sentence
- The children played in the park.
- Instead, they played dumb, remained silent, and did their classwork.2003, John U. Ogbu, Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement, page 194
- I played 18 holes yesterday. The second hole today cost me three strokes over par.From the entry hole
- The band played their hit song to the delight of the fans.From the entry hit
- The government played the Orange card to get support for their Ireland policy.From the entry card
Meaning of play
- verb To act in a manner such that one has fun; to engage in activities expressly for the purpose of recreation or entertainment.
- verb To toy or trifle; to act with levity or thoughtlessness; to be careless.
- verb To perform in (a sport); to participate in (a game).
Questions about the past tense of play
- What is the past tense of play?
- The past tense of play is played.
- What is the past participle of play?
- The past participle of play is played.
- Is play a regular or irregular verb?
- Play is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: play (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 play.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/play. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.