Phrase guide

past historic tense

noun · 1 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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1

noun

Meaning 1

A tense used in some languages (such as French and Italian) in narrative, and in spoken language primarily when reading narrative or in storytelling, for completed actions in the past or in speaking of the deceased.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: grammar, human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: past historic, preterite tense

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

8 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: preteriti — tense
  • French: passé simple — tense
  • Italian: passato remoto — tense
  • Japanese: 単純過去 (tanjun-kako) — tense
  • Japanese: 遠過去 (en-kako) — tense
  • Portuguese: pretérito perfeito — tense
  • Russian: прошедшее историческое время (prošedšeje istoričeskoje vremja) — tense
  • Spanish: pretérito — tense