Jump to:

• lent
  lent

  verb

  simple past tense and past participle of lend.
• Lent
  Lent

  noun

  (in the Christian religion) an annual season of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday and lasting 40 weekdays to Easter, observed by Roman Catholic, Anglican, and certain other churches.
• -lent
  -lent

  a suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, variant of -ulent.

lent

¹ American  

[lent] / lɛnt /

verb

1. simple past tense and past participle of lend.

---

Lent ² American  

[lent] / lɛnt /

noun

1. (in the Christian religion) an annual season of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday and lasting 40 weekdays to Easter, observed by Roman Catholic, Anglican, and certain other churches.

---

-lent ³ American  

1. a suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, variant of -ulent.

   pestilent.

---

Lent ¹ British  

/ lɛnt /

noun

1. Christianity the period of forty weekdays lasting from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, observed as a time of penance and fasting commemorating Jesus' fasting in the wilderness

2. (modifier) falling within or associated with the season before Easter

   Lent observance

3. (plural) (at Cambridge University) Lent term boat races

---

lent ² British  

/ lɛnt /

verb

1. the past tense and past participle of lend

---

Lent Cultural  

1. In Christianity, a time of fasting and repentance in the spring, beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending several weeks later on Easter.

---

Usage

What is Lent? Lent is the season of fasting and penitence that precedes Easter in some branches of Christianity. It is commonly observed by abstaining from certain things.

Discover More

To “give something up for Lent” is to abandon a pleasurable habit as an act of devotion and self-discipline.

Other Word Forms

• post-Lent
  adjective
• unlent
  adjective
• well-lent
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of Lent

First recorded before 900; Middle English leynte, Old English læncte “spring, springtime, Lent,” literally, “lengthening (of daylight hours)”; cognate with Dutch lente(n), German Lenz “spring” (only English has the ecclesiastical sense); see origin at Lenten, long ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

The bank had lent to a private-credit-fund-linked special purpose vehicle which had on-lent to the defaulted borrower.

From MarketWatch • May 20, 2026

Berkshire also lent more than $1.5 billion to Seritage, a loan that is nearly paid off.

From Barron's • May 18, 2026

In 1985, Sir David visited Brownsea Island in Dorset, where he lent his support to a campaign to save woodland.

From BBC • May 8, 2026

In the late 1990s, makers of telecom equipment like Lucent and Nortel lent billions of dollars to their customers to buy more equipment.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026

What Burry couldn’t understand was why a person who lent money would want to extend such a loan.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis