Meanings
-ed1
alternative -d · alternative -'d · alternative -èd
- Used to form past tenses of (regular) verbs. In linguistics, it is used for the base form of any past form. See -t for a variant.
live + -ed → lived
3 more examples
Once upon a time a little princess lived with her mother in a lonely castle.
Jose phoned five minutes ago.
He x'ed two boxes on the voting form.
-ed2
-ed3
Synonyms & antonyms
suffixUsed to form possessional adjectives from nouns, in the sense of having the object represented by the noun.
Origin
-ed · suffix
- Proto-Germanic*-ōd-
- Middle English-ede
- English-ed
From Middle English -ede, -ed. During the Middle English period, this increasingly standard -ed ending largely absorbed the class 1 weak past ending (-de) through morphological leveling. However, many class 1 verbs resisted this leveling to become modern irregular verbs (such as kept and left). This resistance was driven by phonotactics: attaching the consonant suffix directly to the stem often triggered pre-cluster vowel shortening (and consonant devoicing) in Early Middle English, creating a stark vowel alternation between the present and past tense that anchored the irregular form. Conversely, verbs that lacked this stark alternation (such as deem, where the early past tense demde remained insufficiently distinct from the present stem) were highly vulnerable to leveling, adopting the syllabic -ed to ensure the past tense was clearly marked. In modern usage, this morphological leveling has proceeded further in American English than in British English, which frequently preserves the irregular -t variant for such verbs. Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *-ōd-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian -ede (“-ed”, first person singular past indicative ending), Low German -de (“-ed”, first and third person singular past indicative ending), Dutch -d (“-ed”), German -t (“-ed”), Swedish -ade (“-ed”), Icelandic -aði (“-ed”).
More words from Middle English, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →-ed · suffix
- Proto-Germanic*-ōdaz
- Old English-od
- Middle English-ed
- English-ed
From Middle English -ed, from the merger of Old English -od (class 2 weak past participle) and -ed (class 1 weak past participle), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *-ōdaz and *-idaz respectively. Cognate with Saterland Frisian -ed.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →-ed · suffix
- Proto-Indo-European*-eh₂tos
- Proto-Germanic*-ōdaz
- Old English-od
- Middle English-ed
- English-ed
From Middle English -ed, from Old English -od (adjective suffix), from Proto-Germanic *-ōdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos. While identical in appearance to the past participle of class 2 weak verbs, this suffix was attached directly to nouns without any intervening verb. Cognate with Latin -ātus (whence also a doublet -ate), Proto-Slavic *-atъ.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Danish -de, -te
- -depast tense
- -tepast tense
- -ighaving an object
- -ethaving an object
- -ethaving an object of a particular quality
- -ighaving an object of a particular quality
Dutch -ig, ge- -d
- -ighaving an object
- ge- -dhaving an object
- -ighaving an object of a particular quality
Esperanto -is
- -ispast tense
Finnish -kas, -nen
- -kashaving an object
- -nenhaving an object of a particular quality
German -te, -test
- -tepast tense
- -testpast tense
- -tenpast tense
- -tetpast tense
- ge- -tpast participle
- ge- -enpast participle
Hungarian -t, -tt
- -tpast tense
- -ttpast tense
- -ottpast tense
- -ettpast tense
- -öttpast tense
- -shaving an object
- -oshaving an object
- -ashaving an object
- -eshaving an object
- -öshaving an object
- -úhaving an object of a particular quality
- -űhaving an object of a particular quality
- -júhaving an object of a particular quality
- -jűhaving an object of a particular quality
Indonesian ber-, ber-
- ber-having an object
- ber-having an object of a particular quality
Japanese -た, 気味
- -た (-ta)past tense
- 気味 (kimi)having an object
- 気味 (kimi)having an object of a particular quality
Korean -았
- -았 (-at)past tense
Malay ber-, ber-
- ber-having an object
- ber-having an object of a particular quality
Norwegian Bokmål -a, -et
- -apast tense
- -etpast tense
- -tepast tense
- -depast tense
- -ddpast tense
- -ttpast tense
- -tøpast tense
- -øtpast tense
- -øytpast tense
Persian ـده, ـد
- ـده (-de)past tense
- ـد (-d)past tense
- ـته (-te)past tense
- ـت (-t)past tense
- ـدار (-dâr)having an object
Polish -ł, -y
- -łpast tense
- -yhaving an object of a particular quality
- -nyhaving an object of a particular quality
Russian -л, -ла
- -л (-l)past tense
- -ла (-la)past tense
- -ло (-lo)past tense
- -ли (-li)past tense
Spanish -ado
- -adopast tense
Swedish -de, -t
- -depast tense
- -tpast tense
- -enpast tense
- -adpast tense
- -adepast tense
- -ighaving an object
- -adhaving an object
- -dhaving an object
- -ighaving an object of a particular quality
- -adhaving an object of a particular quality
- -dhaving an object of a particular quality
Ukrainian -в, -ла
- -в (-v)past tense
- -ла (-la)past tense
- -ло (-lo)past tense
- -ли (-ly)past tense
Vietnamese đã
- đãpast tense
Cite this entry
-ed. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/-ed
“-ed.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/-ed. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “-ed,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/-ed.
Source: -ed on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.