Smiled

Smiled is the simple past tense and past participle of the verb smile. It describes the act of forming a smile, typically by curving the corners of the mouth and often, though not always, crinkling the eyes to signal happiness, friendliness, or amusement. As a verb, it can be used intransitively (“She smiled.”) or transitively with a prepositional phrase or object (“She smiled at him,” “She smiled for the camera.”). The form is regular: smile becomes smiled in the past tense and past participle, and is pronounced with the final sound as /ˈsmaɪld/.

Smiled appears in a range of tenses with auxiliary verbs (e.g., “has smiled,” “had smiled”). It is common in narrative and descriptive prose to convey a moment of warmth, politeness, or recognition. In discourse, a smile can carry nuances such as sincerity, irony, or reassurance, depending on context and accompanying signals. Distinctions are sometimes drawn between types of smiles, such as a genuine Duchenne smile, which involves eye muscles, and a social or polite smile used to maintain social harmony.

Origins and usage: the base verb smile has Germanic roots and appears in Old English with related forms in other Germanic languages. In modern English, smiled functions as a versatile verb across genres and registers, from everyday conversation to formal writing. The related noun form is smile, and the present participle is smiling.

See also: smile, smiling, Duchenne smile.