Word.ws English Dictionary

shapen

shapen verb: to shape, form. Also the past participle of shape.

Verb

shapen (third-person singular simple present shapens, present participle shapening, simple past and past participle shapened)

  1. (rare) To shape, form.

Adjective

shapen (comparative more shapen, superlative most shapen)

  1. (in-compounds) Shaped; wrought with a definite shape.
    • ill-shapen
    • well-shapen

Also used as

shapen is also the past participle of shape.

Forms of shapen

Verb
third-person singular presentshapens
present participleshapening
past participleshapened
pastshapened
Adjective
comparativemore shapen
superlativemost shapen

Origin of shapen

From shape (“external form”) + -en (“to make like”).

From Middle English schapen, ischepen, from Old English ġesċapen, from Proto-Germanic *skapanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *skapaną, equivalent to shape + -en (past participle ending).

Words formed from shapen

Questions about shapen

What does shapen mean?
Shapen means to shape, form.
What part of speech is shapen?
Shapen can be a verb or an adjective.
What is the past tense of shapen?
The past tense of shapen is shapened.

Words near shapen in the dictionary

  1. shapeliest
  2. shapelily
  3. shapeliness
  4. shapelinesses
  5. shapely
  6. shapen
  7. shapened
  8. shapening
  9. shapens
  10. shaper
  11. Shapero

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shapen (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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