Word Explorer
Children's Dictionary
Help
Help
Help
 
   
Lookup History
participle

par·ti·ci·ple

participle

 
pronunciation:
par tih sI pl
part of speech: noun
definition: a form of a verb that can also sometimes be used as an adjective. In the sentence "The broken machine was very tiring to fix," the words "broken," and "tiring" are participles.
In the sentence "I have been here an hour," the past participle is "been" and it combines with "have."In the sentence "The children are being very good today," the present participle is "being" and it combines with "are."In the sentence, "I was forbidden to enter that room," the past participle "forbidden" combines with "was" to create a passive form of the verb.In the sentence "They entered the forbidden room," the past participle "forbidden" is being used as an adjective.
See a movie for this meaning