slept

Slept is the past tense and past participle of the verb sleep. It is irregular, with the present tense sleep and the past tense slept, past participle slept. It describes the act of sleeping that occurred in the past, or a state related to sleep in perfect tenses, as in I have slept well or I had slept before the alarm.

Usage of slept centers on completed actions in the past. In simple past constructions you would say, for example, I slept for eight hours last night. In perfect tenses it appears as have slept or had slept, as in She has slept since morning or By the time you arrived, he had slept. It can also appear in phrasal verb contexts such as slept through, meaning to remain asleep during some event (e.g., She slept through the thunderstorm).

Etymology and related forms: slept originates from Old English and is part of the broader Germanic language family. It is cognate with Dutch slapen and German schlafen. The precise historical development of the modern form involved phonological changes over time, but the core meaning and irregular past tense have been retained in English for many centuries.

See also: sleep (the noun and concept of rest), sleeping (the present participle and gerund form), and related terms about rest and nocturnal behavior. Slept remains a common and essential form for describing past sleep in both everyday and formal writing.