sought

American  

[sawt] / sɔt /

verb

1. simple past tense and past participle of seek.

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sought British  

/ sɔːt /

verb

1. the past tense and past participle of seek

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Other Word Forms

• self-sought
  adjective
• unsought
  adjective

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?'"

Example Sentences

Sought for their fluency in various African languages, content moderators hired by Sama in Kenya soon found themselves looking at graphic content that hit painfully close to home.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 29, 2023

In 1989, the New York Times published an article titled, “Wider Door at Top Colleges Sought by Asian-Americans.”

From Slate • Nov. 2, 2018

Sought after, typically, by the technology, entertainment, media and other creative businesses that are gradually supplanting the defense giants that used to cluster near the airport.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 9, 2017

Sought out by the Holtby family as a private positional coach, Stevenson eventually introduced Holtby to the mental aspect so critical to his game.

From Washington Post • Apr. 24, 2015

Sought after as his carcass is by every New England ornithologist, the mourning warbler exercises only a reasonable discretion in fighting shy of every animal that walks upright.

From A Rambler's lease by Torrey, Bradford