existed
- 1Simple past and past participle of exist.
Strong evidence suggests that vast lakes once existed on the surface of Mars.
Few written records of the lost colony existed by the time researchers went looking.
Note
One regular spelling does double duty: the plain past (dinosaurs once existed) and the participle after have or had (the town had existed for centuries). Exist is intransitive, so the participle never forms a passive; "was existed" is always an error. It is also stative, which is why "had existed" is the natural choice for something lasting up to a past moment, rather than "had been existing."
existed is a form of exist
exist, verb: To be real; to have actual being or presence rather than only being imagined. Full entry
- Spelling
- exist → existed: add -ed
Use it in a sentence
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