returned

Returned is the past tense and past participle of the verb return. It indicates that something has gone back to a former place, owner, position, or state. As a transitive verb, it appears in sentences such as, “She returned the parcel to the sender,” or, “Temperatures have returned to normal.” It can also describe a reversion to a previous condition, as in, “Attendance has returned to pre-pandemic levels.”

As an adjective, returned describes things or people that have come back. Examples include “returned goods,” “returned travelers,” or “a returned soldier.” In English, it commonly appears with perfect tenses, as in “The items have been returned” or “The funds have returned to the account.”

In specialized contexts, returned has particular uses. In shipping and mail, it denotes an item that could not be delivered and was sent back to the origin. In computing, a function may return a value; the phrase “returned value” is used to refer to what a function outputs after execution. In legal and administrative language, “tax return” is a related but distinct noun referring to a report submitted to authorities, while “returned” can modify related phrases.

The term also appears in culture and media. The title The Returned is used for various works, including a television series based on the French show Les Revenants, and other media that use the word in titles or descriptions.

Overall, returned functions as both a verb form and an adjective, bridging everyday usage with specialized domains such as logistics, computing, and storytelling.