Word.ws English Dictionary

preterit

preterit is the alternative form of preterite.

Meaning of preterite

Noun

preterite (plural preterites)

  1. A grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past.
    • When simple verbs redouble the preterite, the compounds drop the first syllable, as: Pello, pĕpŭli, to drive away, to beat back; Repello, rĕpŭli, and not rĕpĕpŭli, to drive back, to repel.1772, John Mair, A Radical Vocabulary, Latin and English, Edinburgh: A. Murray, and J. Cochran, for A. Kincaid & W. Creech, and J. Bell, →OCLC, page 101
    Synonyms:
    grammatical tense

See all 3 meanings of preterite

Forms of preterit

pluralpreterits

Words formed from preterit

Questions about preterit

What is preterit the alternative form of?
Preterit is the alternative form of preterite.

Words near preterit in the dictionary

  1. preterintentionality
  2. preterintentionally
  3. preterism
  4. preterist
  5. preterists
  6. preterit
  7. preterit-present
  8. preterit-presents
  9. preterital
  10. preterite
  11. preterite tense

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: preterit (page history and authors); preterite (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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