Past tense of sink
irregular verb
The past tense of sink is sank. The past participle is sunk.
Forms of sink
| Base form (V1) | sink /ˈsɪŋk/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | sank /ˈsæŋk/ |
| Past participle (V3) | sunk /sʌŋk/ |
| Present participle | sinking /ˈsɪŋkɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | sinks /sɪŋks/ |
Sank and sunk in a sentence
- A stone sinks in water. The sun gradually sank in the west.
- An iceberg sank the Titanic. British battleships sank the Bismarck.
- The small boat broached and nearly sank, because of the large waves.From the entry broach
- The ship hit a naval mine and sank with all hands.From the entry naval mine
- The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage.From the entry maiden voyage
Meaning of sink
- verb To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance.
- verb To (directly or indirectly) cause a vessel to sink, generally by making it no longer watertight.
- verb To push (something) into something.
Verbs like sink
Questions about the past tense of sink
- What is the past tense of sink?
- The past tense of sink is sank.
- What is the past participle of sink?
- The past participle of sink is sunk.
- Is sink a regular or irregular verb?
- Sink is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sink (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 sink.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/sink. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.