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🇮🇹Italian Source WordCode: IT

preterito

Pronunciation / Transliteration: preterito

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Preterite/ˈprɛt.ər.ɪt/
nounadjectiveCEFR C2 (Proficient)Top #14500 frequency
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🇮🇹 Example Sentence in Italian:

"Il passato remoto è un tipo di tempo preterito."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    A tense or form of a verb expressing an action done in the past without reference to its duration or completion; the simple past tense.

    "In grammar, the preterite of 'go' is 'went'."
As adjective
  1. 1

    Relating to or denoting the preterite tense.

    "The text contains several archaic preterite verb forms."
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Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the Latin 'praeteritus', meaning 'gone by' or 'past', formed from 'praeterire' (to pass by, go beyond). Entering Middle English via Old French in the 14th century, it initially retained the general sense of past time before becoming specialized in grammar to denote the simple past tense.

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