dwell
Americanverb (used without object)
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dwells,
present (3rd person singular)
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dwelt,
past participle, past
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dwelled,
past participle, past
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dwelling
present participle
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to live or stay as a permanent resident; reside.
-
to live or continue in a given condition or state.
to dwell in happiness.
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to linger over, emphasize, or ponder in thought, speech, or writing (often followed by on orupon ).
to dwell on a particular point in an argument.
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(of a moving tool or machine part) to be motionless for a certain interval during operation.
noun
verb
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formal to live as a permanent resident
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to live (in a specified state)
to dwell in poverty
noun
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a regular pause in the operation of a machine
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a flat or constant-radius portion on a linear or rotary cam enabling the cam follower to remain static for a brief time
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dwellsimple
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dwellssimple
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have dwelledperfect
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have dweltperfect
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has dwelledperfect
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has dweltperfect
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am dwellingprogressive
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are dwellingprogressive
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is dwellingprogressive
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have been dwellingperfect progressive
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has been dwellingperfect progressive
Past
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dwelledsimple
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dweltsimple
-
had dwelledperfect
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had dweltperfect
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was dwellingprogressive
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were dwellingprogressive
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had been dwellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dwell
First recorded before 900; Middle English dwellen “to lead astray; stun; abide,” Old English dwellan “to lead or go astray; hinder”; cognate with Old Norse dvelja
Explanation
To dwell in a home is to live in it. To dwell on something — usually something bad, like a failed romance or terrible service in a restaurant — is to think or speak about it at great length. Dwell has been part of the English language for over 1,000 years. The definition of the word has evolved considerably since its first recorded use in the 9th century when Old English dwellan meant "lead astray" or "hinder." If you constantly dwell on the bad things in life, it could hinder you from seeing the good or lead you astray to the negative. If you keep complaining, your friends might tell you to stop dwelling on it or, if they're really annoyed, they'll say, "Get over it!"
Vocabulary lists containing dwell
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act II
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"The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mr. Adams doesn’t dwell on such matters, nor does he fret about this music’s meaning in a changed world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
I’m sure she would want you to live your best life, and not dwell on the financial aspect of her death.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026
Huang reserved his sharpest warning for governments that dwell on the technology's risks.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
"I think that's the most important part. It's the decision to not dwell and the decision to look forward rather than in the past."
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
The next morning, I woke up feeling uneasy about dropping my medical school plans, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it, because there was little room in my schedule for indecision.
From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad
Joe Martinez, whose son, Kahlel, has been on the same team for about a year, said Caligiuri rarely dwells on his accomplishments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2026
From here, much of the novel dwells on Günter’s terror and paralysis as the Nazi Party wrests control of Germany.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
He never dwells on errors, he just kicks on.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2026
But “Influencers” both dwells in and demolishes an online, text-happy, selfie-saturated world, one that thrives on misinformation and FOMO-mongering and drives CW more than a little crazy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 9, 2025
It says that when a man is asleep, he penetrates his innermost and dwells in Atman.
From "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse
“The God who once dwelled among His people in this city still calls us in the words of Scripture,” the president said in a speech at Israel’s parliament in October.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025
Prosecutors, he said, had dwelled on the lurid details of the affair, but that wasn’t evidence of murder.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2025
Vance’s most heated points about gender dwelled not on hormones but on LGBTQ+ issues.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2024
On Saturday, the group’s president, David McIntosh, sat in the front row of a Trump rally in Conway, S.C., a detail that the former president repeatedly dwelled on for his audience.
From New York Times ● Feb. 16, 2024
Ancestors and spirits dwelled everywhere, pleased to be within the city’s walls.
From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis
He visited many lands, but mostly dwelt with the nymph Calypso on her island.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026
On average, their eyes dwelt on their screen for longer when the language was angry and emotive.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2026
Indeed, commentators seem to have dwelt on little else.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026
Television pioneer Norman Lear, who died this month at the age of 101, told me three years ago that he dwelt not on what he’d done but on what he wanted to do next.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2023
Though the angry gods threw storm after storm against it, the seventh castle stood defiant, and Durran Godsgrief and fair Elenei dwelt there together until the end of their days.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
However, they raised eyebrows by listing the dwelling less than one year later for $7.4 million, a sizable price increase.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026
This included growth in residential building in July, driven by a rise in home alterations and improvements as well as new construction of most dwelling types.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
Galicia didn’t get the protection he needed, despite multiple contacts with police and city offices — by him, relatives and neighbors —regarding the empty dwelling next door to his on North St. Andrews Place.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
Now, Realtor.com can exclusively reveal that Evans offloaded the dwelling for $5.38 million—a more than $1 million discount from his already reduced price.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
By 1910, of the thirty thousand people dwelling in Boston’s North End, more than twenty-eight thousand were Italians.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
