Meaning & use
expired
Last updated
“expired” is a form of “expire”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
verbintransitive
Past tense and past participle of 'expire'; (of a document, agreement, or period) came to an end or stopped being valid.
Grammar: Used without an object: 'The contract expired.' The base form is 'expire'.
Patterns
- something expired
- the deadline expired
- the passport expired
My passport expired last month, so I need to renew it.
The lease expired at the end of December.
The offer expired before I could accept it.
adjectivebefore a noun
No longer valid or usable because the allowed time has passed.
Grammar: Used before a noun: 'an expired ticket'. It can also follow a linking verb: 'The ticket is expired.'
Patterns
- expired passport
- expired credit card
- expired medicine
- expired license
The cashier refused to accept the expired coupon.
Do not take expired medicine without checking with a doctor.
He tried to board the plane with an expired visa.
Word forms
| base form | expire |
|---|---|
| third person singular | expires |
| past tense | expired |
| past participle | expired |
| -ing form | expiring |
Common combinations
- expired passport
- She could not travel with an expired passport.
- expired credit card
- The payment failed because he used an expired credit card.
- expired contract
- The expired contract was not renewed.
- expired food
- The store removed all expired food from the shelves.
- expired license
- Driving with an expired license is illegal in most places.
Synonyms and how they differ
- out of date
- This is a common phrase meaning no longer useful or valid, but it can also mean old-fashioned, while 'expired' specifically means the time limit has passed.
- invalid
- This means not legally or officially acceptable; an expired document is one type of invalid document.
- lapsed
- This often describes something that has ended because payments or renewals were not made, such as a lapsed membership.
Opposites
Word family
- expire verb
- To come to an end or stop being valid.
- expiration noun
- The ending of a period of validity; the date when something expires.
- expiry noun
- British term for expiration; the end of a period of validity.
Commonly confused: expired or excited? expired or experienced?
expired vs excited
These sound similar but have completely different meanings: 'excited' means feeling happy and enthusiastic, while 'expired' means no longer valid.
expired vs experienced
Do not confuse 'expired' with 'experienced', which means having knowledge or skill from doing something for a long time.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence:
Choose one answer.
Option 0 correctly uses the past tense 'expired'. Option 1 incorrectly uses the base form 'expire' with 'is'. Option 2 incorrectly uses 'has expire' instead of 'has expired'. Option 3 uses the -ing form 'expiring' without a helping verb, which is not correct here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “expired”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.