Word.ws English Dictionary

preached

/priːt͡ʃt/

preached is the simple past and past participle of preach.

Meaning of preach

Verb

preach (third-person singular simple present preaches, present participle preaching, simple past and past participle preached or (nonstandard) praught)

  1. (intransitive) To give a sermon.
    • Our pastor can preach very well.
  2. (transitive) To proclaim by public discourse; to utter in a sermon or a formal religious harangue.
    • The Spirit of the Lord God is vpon me, therefore hathe the Lord anointed me: he hathe ſent me to preache good tidings vnto the poore,[…]1560, [William Whittingham et al., transl.], The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament. […] (the Geneva Bible), Geneva: […] Rouland Hall, →OCLC, Isaiah LXI:1, folio 304...
  3. (transitive) To advise or recommend earnestly.
    • My Mʳ preaches patience to him,[…]c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  4. (transitive) To teach or instruct by preaching; to inform by preaching.
    • The Spirits of the Dead, / Quitting their mortal mansion, enter not, / As falsely ye are preached, their final seat / Of bliss, or bale;[…]1801, Robert Southey, “The Ninth Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume II, London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC, page 149
  5. (intransitive) To give advice in an offensive or obtrusive manner.
    • Papa, don't preach, I'm in trouble, deep / Papa, don't preach, I've been losing sleep1986, Brian Elliot, Madonna, “Papa Don't Preach”, performed by Madonna

See all 7 meanings of preach

Phrases with preached

Words that rhyme with preached

Questions about preached

What is preached the simple past and past participle of?
Preached is the simple past and past participle of preach.
How do you pronounce preached?
Preached is pronounced /priːt͡ʃt/.

Words near preached in the dictionary

  1. preach to the congregation
  2. preach to the converted
  3. preach up
  4. preach water and drink wine
  5. preachable
  6. preached
  7. preached down
  8. preached in the desert
  9. preached to deaf ears
  10. preached to the choir
  11. preached to the congregation

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: preached (page history and authors); preach (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “preached.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/preached. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.