Seeked

Seeked is a nonstandard form of the verb seek. In standard English, the past tense and past participle of seek are sought. This means correct constructions include sentences such as “She sought counsel yesterday” or “They have sought a resolution.”

Usage notes indicate that seeked appears primarily as an informal or erroneous variant. Some writers use seeked in casual speech or early drafts, but many editors and style guides view it as nonstandard or incorrect for formal writing. The regularization to seeked is a regular past tense pattern that does not align with English morphology for the verb seek, which is irregular and historically yields sought.

In contrast, standard usage uses sought for both simple past and past participle forms: “He sought shelter,” “They had sought permission,” and “We are seeking information.” The present participle is seeking, and the present tense uses seeks for third-person singular subjects.

Related concerns include language learners encountering seeked as a habitual mistake, especially when translating from languages with regular past-tense forms. Awareness of the irregular form sought helps maintain grammatical accuracy in formal writing and professional communication.

See also irregular verbs; seek; seeking; sought.