How to Use past in a Sentence

past

1 of 4 adjective
  • She was hired based on her past experience in sales.
  • These past few games were down.
    — Josh Yohe, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Miller has eight points in his past four games.
    — Andrew Knoll, Daily News, 21 Jan. 2026
  • How does this film fit in with your past work?
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 1 June 2026
  • Read transcripts from past live chats here.
    — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2026
  • Chicago has won six of its past nine games.
    — CBS News, 22 June 2026
  • Here's what the data from past years looks like.
    — Lucia Cheng, Des Moines Register, 19 Feb. 2026
  • Sánchez was in big league camp with the Yanks this past spring.
    — Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 7 June 2026
  • Bieberchella has been the talk of the town these past few weeks.
    — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 19 Apr. 2026
  • Here are some of his most outlandish posts over this past year.
    — Amethyst Martinez, USA Today, 18 May 2026
  • The Kings have won just four of their past 13 games.
    — Andrew Knoll, Daily News, 8 Jan. 2026
  • Read more about Ross and his past injury here.
    — Thao Nguyen, USA Today, 9 Jan. 2026
  • In his past five fights, Makhachev has earned five fight-night bonus awards.
    — Trent Reinsmith, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2025
  • Then pulled me down a hall and past three large locked doors where four guards awaited.
    — Jeremy O. Harris, Vanity Fair, 1 Apr. 2026
  • But the other winner these past few days?
    — Jim Alexander, Oc Register, 8 June 2026
  • Details on past launches can be found at the end of file.
    — Richard Tribou, The Orlando Sentinel, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Details on past launches can be found at the end of file.
    — Richard Tribou, The Orlando Sentinel, 19 Apr. 2026
  • Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 29 Jan. 2026
  • Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 23 Sep. 2025
  • Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 30 Sep. 2025
  • Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches.
    — FOXNews.com, 7 Oct. 2025
  • Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 28 Oct. 2025
  • Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 8 Jan. 2026
  • Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 15 Jan. 2026
  • Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 18 Feb. 2026
  • Both efforts have come in his past three outings.
    — Doug Padilla, Oc Register, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Three out of the four past years, Southside pool has been closed.
    — Steve Large, CBS News, 4 May 2026
  • The most recent strikes came this past weekend.
    — Christopher Cann, USA Today, 2 June 2026
  • This is why these past three months have felt so momentous around here.
    — Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 16 Apr. 2026
  • This past weekend, that vision came to life.
    — Jordan Greene, PEOPLE, 4 May 2026

past

2 of 4 preposition
  • We drove past the house.
  • Turn left just past the stairs.
  • He looked past me to the next customer.
  • I must have walked right past her.
  • The office is two blocks past the intersection.
  • Don't be in such a rush to get past it.
    — Steph Koyfman, Condé Nast Traveler, 29 Apr. 2026
  • The day was racing past her now.
    — Literary Hub, 1 Apr. 2026
  • Don’t ignore it or joke past it.
    — Tarot.com, New York Daily News, 22 Apr. 2026
  • Si wants to move past that framing.
    — Elaine Yu, CNBC, 25 Mar. 2026
  • Putts that had been falling slid past the cup.
    — Zach Sweet, Kansas City Star, 9 Sep. 2025
  • The science has since moved well past it.
    — Samantha Agate, Miami Herald, 24 June 2026
  • The dog didn't advance past the first round.
    — CBS News, 4 Feb. 2026
  • The dog didn’t advance past the first round.
    — Jennifer Peltz, Chicago Tribune, 3 Feb. 2026
  • But the cast gallops right past the clichés.
    — Stephen Farber, HollywoodReporter, 15 Sep. 2025
  • But both sides talk past each other about next steps.
    — Peter Smith, Twin Cities, 30 Aug. 2025
  • The poll comes as the war stretches past the one-month mark.
    — Kim Hjelmgaard, USA Today, 1 Apr. 2026
  • Kyle Busch is very clearly past his prime.
    — Zach Dean Outkick, FOXNews.com, 27 Apr. 2026
  • The ball got just past Adell’s glove and hit the top of his head.
    — Jeff Fletcher, Oc Register, 3 June 2026
  • Your knees should be stacked over your ankles, not pushed past your toes.
    — Christa Sgobba, Health, 19 May 2026
  • Guys are still blowing past him on defense.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 2 Mar. 2026
  • Hunter grew up on Saipan and watched at least three tin roofs fly past his yard.
    — Emily Mae Czachor, CBS News, 15 Apr. 2026
  • This hardly lasts past a second day.
    — Symiah Dorsey, Southern Living, 25 Feb. 2026
  • This hardly lasts past a second day.
    — Symiah Dorsey, Southern Living, 5 Oct. 2025
  • The cut itself falls just past her jawline to the nape of her neck.
    — Kara Nesvig, Allure, 10 Mar. 2026
  • Shredded beef was found in the walk-in cooler past its due date.
    — Paige Moore, AZCentral.com, 1 Apr. 2026
  • Tech drove past midfield on five of its first six cracks on offense.
    — Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 30 Aug. 2025
  • The man barely got past the perimeter.
    — Donald J. Mihalek, ABC News, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Look past the saber rattling and campaign rhetoric.
    — Brian Jones, Oc Register, 6 Jan. 2026
  • The injury should keep him sidelined past that.
    — Jeff Fedotin, Forbes.com, 20 May 2026
  • Our angel was right there on the sidewalk, just past the young men.
    — Literary Hub, 3 June 2026

past

3 of 4 noun
  • Past, present, and future are all linked together.
  • Look at their past, look at their record.
    — Ted Johnson, Deadline, 9 Apr. 2026
  • And put my past behind me for good.
    — Michael Schneider, Variety, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Parts of her past now feel so far removed.
    — Alex Morris, Rolling Stone, 19 Mar. 2026
  • The clown has a provocative past.
    — Time, 30 Oct. 2025
  • Hair loss becomes part of your past.
    — Emrah Cinik, Miami Herald, 23 Feb. 2026
  • This has changed some in the recent past.
    — Robert Forrant, The Conversation, 20 Apr. 2026
  • Father and son, past and present.
    — Doug Haller, New York Times, 9 Oct. 2025
  • The names on the buildings and streets range from past to present.
    — Chris Yogerst, HollywoodReporter, 6 May 2026
  • And the whole point is that there is no past and there is no future.
    — Nancy Tartaglione, Deadline, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Based on his own past, the third-line role might be a better fit.
    — Allan Mitchell, New York Times, 7 Jan. 2026
  • To do that, Ray will have to confront his past.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Saadiq said his sound was built on his past and those who came before him.
    — Lisa Respers France, CNN Money, 26 Feb. 2026
  • Laurie’s world is dark and dirty, and it’s tied to her past and her debt.
    — Selome Hailu, Variety, 20 Apr. 2026
  • None of those women knew anything about my past.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 23 Oct. 2025
  • But the recent past need not be prologue.
    — Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 17 June 2026
  • And miss all the drinking and crying about their pasts?
    — Brian Moylan, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2026
  • Prince William is opening up about a dark time in his past.
    — Christina Dugan Ramirez, FOXNews.com, 2 Oct. 2025
  • That’s the first half of what this useful past reveals.
    — Literary Hub, 11 June 2026
  • These are adults with baggage, unable to walk away from their pasts.
    — Zac Ntim, Deadline, 23 Oct. 2025
  • Or are they trapped by the titles and tasks that defined their past?
    — Nirit Cohen, Forbes.com, 23 June 2026
  • Your past doesn’t define you; your purpose does.
    — Emad Rahim, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025
  • More on that brooding past seems inevitable.
    — Grace Byron, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Others will focus on their past.
    — Angela Velasquez, Footwear News, 26 May 2026
  • Little Joe has a bit of a troubled past.
    — Matt Reigle Outkick, FOXNews.com, 14 May 2026
  • Silvia Shasha Zhang doesn’t talk much about her past.
    — Ava Kofman, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Normally, that hasn't been my past.
    — Anthony Robledo, USA Today, 11 Apr. 2026
  • What is key, too, panelists agreed, is to build bridges between past and present.
    — Lise Pedersen, Variety, 21 Oct. 2023
  • Give me raiders of the lost past, any day, and forgive them their lack of footnotes.
    — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2026
  • But Burden is haunted by his own past.
    — Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 12 May 2026

past

4 of 4 adverb
  • Several weeks went past before we heard from her.
  • Just then, a stranger walked past.
    — Autumn Barnes, NPR, 23 Sep. 2025
  • How did the show rank with years past?
    — David Remnick, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
  • In years past, Joel would note dozens sold.
    — Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2026
  • One nervous putt that slides past.
    — Mike Bianchi, The Orlando Sentinel, 7 Mar. 2026
  • Such a streak in years past might have snowballed.
    — Curtis Pashelka, Mercury News, 30 Dec. 2025
  • In years past, one famous face might have done the job.
    — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 4 Feb. 2026
  • Check out how this years' event compares to years past.
    — Ray Padilla, Louisville Courier Journal, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Oh, and there are videos, too, thousands in fact, from years past.
    — Mark Harris Outkick, FOXNews.com, 17 May 2026
  • In the Asakusa store, a customer walked past.
    — Lauren Collins, New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2025
  • The team looks much different than years past.
    — Joseph Hernandez, Kansas City Star, 25 Feb. 2026
  • Someone got a haircut as cars whizzed past.
    — Los Angeles Times, 18 Feb. 2026
  • Talk about a graphic reminder of eight decades past.
    — Jim Clash, Forbes.com, 11 Sep. 2025
  • Or archive pieces from decades past, the deepest of deep cuts?
    — José Criales-Unzueta, Vogue, 10 Nov. 2023
  • There, the flu season has been more severe than in years past.
    — Libby Richards, The Conversation, 10 Oct. 2025
  • Read why the candy bowls may have less chocolate than in years past.
    — Alexandra Banner, CNN Money, 27 Oct. 2025
  • Here's how this snowstorm compares to those from years past.
    — Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 23 Feb. 2026
  • When rain threatened in years past, the sun always came out just in time.
    — Itzel Luna, Los Angeles Times, 1 Jan. 2026
  • As in years past, what stood out was the sheer range of thinking on display.
    — John Vorwald, Robb Report, 15 Feb. 2026
  • His name was there for years, a fixture that many fans walked past on the way to their seats.
    — Ryan Brennan, Miami Herald, 30 Mar. 2026
  • But if Davos was less free-wheeling than in years past, so is the world.
    — Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Today's Best Buy deals are too good to scroll past.
    — PC Magazine, 15 Oct. 2025
  • Good point, but also worth pointing out that the idea has roots in their awards show past.
    — Chris Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Mar. 2023
  • How much have Masters winners won in years past?
    — Jordana Comiter, PEOPLE, 12 Apr. 2026
  • The timing of the event is different than in years past.
    — Sam Warren, Houston Chronicle, 2 Feb. 2026
  • The session took on a different tone than in years past.
    — Doug Haller, New York Times, 1 May 2026
  • In years past, the event has brought out large crowds to raise awareness for a big problem.
    — Shardaa Gray, CBS News, 3 June 2026
  • The best hairsprays are far from a thing of beauty routines past.
    — Conçetta Ciarlo, Vogue, 15 Jan. 2026
  • This pair of eagles have raised several chicks in years past.
    — Carolyn Wells, Longreads, 13 Sep. 2023
  • His back fin breaks the surface after the fly has floated past.
    — Ralph Tuttle, Outdoor Life, 25 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'past.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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