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PlainSpell

went

/wɛnt/verb

went is spelled W-E-N-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 316 times per million words in written English, the 298th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, went means “simple past of go” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in went?

Letters4: W-E-N-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing316 times per million words; the 298th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is went?

Went appears 316 times per million words in written English, the 298th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce went?

  • UK /wɛnt/
  • US /wɛnt/
  • US [wɛnʔ(t̚)]

Went has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Pvanp7-went.wav, En-us-went.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with went?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as went from its last stressed vowel (/ɛnt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: newt.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

What does went mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    simple past of go (a form of go)

  2. 2

    nonstandardpast participle of go (a form of go)

  3. 3

    archaicsimple past and past participle of wend (a form of wend)

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteA course; a way, a path; a journey.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Where does went come from?

Originally the simple past and past participle of wend, but now the past of go due to suppletion. While wend is akin to wind, compare typologically Russian смота́ться (smotátʹsja), сма́тываться (smátyvatʹsja), умота́ть (umotátʹ), ума́тывать (umátyvatʹ) (akin to мота́ть (motátʹ)).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after went