sought
Americanverb
verb
Other Word Forms
Explanation
I have long sought an answer to the following question: If sought is the past tense of seek, how come you say "we played hide and seek all afternoon" instead of "we hid and sought all afternoon?" Seek means to look for, and sought is what you say when you're done with the looking. "As a young man, I sought my fortune. Now it is time for me to sit by the fire, searching for the long-sought-after answer to the timeless question 'What did it all mean?'"
Vocabulary lists containing sought
"O Captain! My Captain!" Vocabulary from the poem
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Word Generation Weekly - Series 3
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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.
Zhu sought out films which touch on the era-defining event, but neither epic romance Summer Palace nor the secretly filmed gay drama Lan Yu could satisfy her curiosity.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Sheinbaum has sought to avoid confrontation with Trump while also positing herself as a defender of Mexican sovereignty.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
As her mental health declined, she sought care from doctors and was prescribed varying cocktails of medications over several months for depression and insomnia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
My own classic-rock-loving father ended up with copies of Whitney Houston and Alanis Morissette albums that he, left to his own devices, wouldn’t have sought out.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
The survivors sought comfort in the belief that this terrible war surely would be the last.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
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.
