Past tense of signal
regular verb
The past tense of signal is signaled or signalled. The past participle is also signaled or signalled.
Forms of signal
| Base form (V1) | signal /ˈsɪɡnəl/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | signaled signalled |
| Past participle (V3) | signaled signalled |
| Present participle | signaling |
| Third person singular | signals /ˈsɪɡnəlz/ |
Signaled and signalled in a sentence
- I signalled my acquiescence with a nod.
- In order to accommodate the new platform 4 and the reversibly signalled slow line, a deep cutting had to be cut back and held up in places with a concrete retaining wall.1962 June, David Walters, “The new station and layout at Coventry”, in Modern Railways, page 405
- He signaled his Afghans to follow and led them down the side of the hill.2022, Kevin Maurer, The Good Afghan. From the entry squirter
- The hard pass signaled to the Secret Service that a complete background check had been turned in by the FBI.2012, Nicolle Wallace, It's Classified: A Novel, →ISBN, page 32. From the entry hard pass
- In it, they claimed that blacks' physical and mental differences signaled their polygenic origins and proved black inferiority.2008, Harriet A. Washington, “Southern Discomfort”, in Medical Apartheid, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, page 53. From the entry screed
Meaning of signal
- noun A sequence of states representing an encoded message in a communication channel.
- noun Any variation of a quantity or change in an entity over time that conveys information upon detection.
- noun A sign made to give notice of some occurrence, command, or danger, or to indicate the start of a concerted action.
Questions about the past tense of signal
- What is the past tense of signal?
- The past tense of signal is signaled or signalled.
- What is the past participle of signal?
- The past participle of signal is signaled or signalled.
- Is signal a regular or irregular verb?
- Signal is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: signal (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 signal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/signal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.