exited

Exited is the past tense and past participle of the verb exit. It denotes the act of going out or leaving a place, or the ending of a state or activity. In everyday usage, it commonly refers to people or animals leaving a location, such as someone who exited the room or passengers who exited the train. In computing and technology, exited can describe a program or process that has finished running, as in “the program has exited” or “the process exited with code 0.”

Etymology and forms: exit comes from the Latin exire, meaning to go out. English adopted the noun and verb forms, and added the regular -ed ending to form exited for both the past tense and the past participle (as in “has exited” or “had exited”).

Usage notes: Exited is a finite verb form in past contexts or a past participle used in perfect tenses and passive constructions. The present participle is exiting, used for ongoing action (e.g., “the crowd is exiting the building”). For contrast, the similarly pronounced word excited means feeling enthusiastic or stimulated, not leaving.

Examples: “She exited the building quietly.” “The application has exited unexpectedly.” “After he exited the room, the discussion continued.”

See also: exit, exiting, excited. Exited should not be confused with excited, which has a different meaning and usage.