# lent

Pronunciation: say "LENT" /lɛnt/

## Verb

1. Past tense and past participle of lend. — simple past and past participle of lend
   - Simple: Past tense and past participle of lend. Use it for the past, or after has, have, had, is, was or were.
   - _The bank lent the company two million dollars to open a second factory._
   - _Her calm voice lent the tense meeting a sense of order._

## Noun · Lent

2. A period of the church year before Easter, traditionally marked by giving up certain foods and pleasures for a time.
   - Simple: The weeks before Easter, when Christians often give up some foods or treats for a while.
   - _She gave up social media for Lent and found she slept better._
   - _Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent._

## Other meanings

- (noun) Short for Lent term.
- (noun) Vassa, the period of Buddhist observance that falls during the rainy season.
- (proper noun) A family name.

## Origin

A shortened form of Lenten, from Old English lencten, from Proto-West Germanic *langatīn ("spring"), the season in which the days lengthen as it goes on. It is related to words for spring in other Germanic languages, such as Dutch lente and German Lenz.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/lent (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).