Phrase guide

continuous tense

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A verb tense expressing ongoing action; in English, any of the tenses formed with the present participle, namely present continuous ("I am dreaming"), past continuous ("I was dreaming"), present perfect continuous ("I have been dreaming"), past perfect continuous ("I had been dreaming"), future continuous ("I will be dreaming") or future perfect continuous ("I will have been dreaming").

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: grammar, human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a tense of verbs used in describing action that is on-going

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: progressive, progressive tense, imperfect, imperfect tense

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: tense

Narrower terms: present progressive, present progressive tense, past progressive, past progressive tense, future progressive, future progressive tense

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.