had
8 synonyms for had, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Verb — Past tense and past participle of have: to have owned, held, experienced or received something in the past.
Synonyms
Everyday swaps
Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. verb
Past tense and past participle of have: to have owned, held, experienced or received something in the past.
“We had two cars until last summer.”
2. verb informal
In 'been had', to have been cheated, tricked or taken advantage of.
“Forty pounds for that? You've been had.”
How to use had
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
Neutral. The contracted forms 'd (I'd, they'd) stand for had in the past perfect and for would elsewhere, so the following verb form settles which is meant.
Etymology
This word came from Middle English hadde (preterite) and yhad (past participle), from Old English hæfde (first and third person singular preterite) and ġehæfd (past participle), from Proto-Germanic *habdaz, the past and past participle stem of *habjaną ("to have"); it is equivalent to have + -ed. It is cognate with Dut...
Full origin of had →