The past tense of strike is struck. The standard past participle is also struck, while stricken is a specialized past participle and adjective used mainly for illness, grief, disaster, fixed compounds, and some formal legal expressions.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Strike, struck, struck is the standard form for the base verb, simple past, and ordinary past participle.
- Stricken is not the normal simple past tense: “The storm struck the coast” is correct.
- Stricken commonly describes someone or something affected by illness, grief, poverty, fear, or disaster.
- Struck follows physical-impact subjects and ordinary perfect or passive constructions: “The ship has struck the reef.”
- Panic-stricken, grief-stricken, and poverty-stricken are established hyphenated compound adjectives.
- In legal writing, both struck from the record and stricken from the record occur, with local style determining the preferred form.
What Are the Forms of “Strike”?
The principal forms of strike are strike, struck, struck, with stricken available in restricted participial and adjectival uses. The simple past does not change for person, so “I struck,” “she struck,” and “they struck” all use struck.
| Grammatical form | Correct form | Example | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base form | strike | “They strike the bell at noon.” | Present tense or infinitive |
| Third-person singular | strikes | “The machine strikes the plate.” | Present-tense agreement |
| Simple past | struck | “The machine struck the plate.” | Completed past action |
| Standard past participle | struck | “The machine has struck the plate.” | Perfect or passive construction |
| Specialized participle | stricken | “The region was stricken by famine.” | Affliction or formal adjective |
| Present participle | striking | “The machine is striking the plate.” | Ongoing action |
English dictionaries generally list struck as both the past tense and past participle. Merriam-Webster describes stricken as “used chiefly as a participial adjective,” a concise distinction that explains why stricken sounds natural in “grief-stricken family” but usually fails in a basic past-tense sentence.
Is “stricken” a past tense?
Stricken is not the ordinary past tense of strike. The ordinary past-tense sentence is “The hammer struck the nail,” whereas “The hammer stricken the nail” is ungrammatical because stricken cannot replace struck in that simple-past position.
The form stricken can appear after auxiliary verbs in formal or specialized constructions, such as “The village was stricken by drought.” In that sentence, was stricken describes an affliction, not a single blow. The distinction depends on meaning and grammatical structure rather than on whether the sentence refers to the past.
When Should You Use “Struck”?
Use struck for a completed action, an ordinary perfect participle, a standard passive construction, or a sudden mental or emotional effect. The verb covers physical contact, clock sounds, industrial action, discovery, agreement, and many figurative meanings.
| Meaning of strike | Correct construction | Example | Common alternative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical impact | Simple past | “The ball struck the window.” | hit |
| Collision | Perfect participle | “The vessel has struck a reef.” | collided with |
| Clock or bell sound | Simple past | “The clock struck midnight.” | chimed |
| Sudden realization | Simple past | “An idea struck Maya.” | occurred to Maya |
| Labor action | Simple past | “The workers struck in June.” | went on strike |
| Removal or deletion | Passive phrase | “The judge struck the answer.” | removed |
Struck is also correct when the subject experiences a direct event. Use “She was struck by a car,” “The tree was struck by lightning,” and “The audience was struck by the clarity of the argument.” These examples describe an impact or sudden impression, not an ongoing condition of illness or grief.
Is “struck” the past participle of “strike”?
Struck is the standard past participle of strike. Use it after has, have, or had for perfect tenses, and after forms of be when the sentence describes an ordinary passive action.
| Construction | Correct form | Example | Time or voice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present perfect | has struck | “The storm has struck three islands.” | Past action linked to present |
| Past perfect | had struck | “The storm had struck before dawn.” | Earlier past action |
| Passive perfect | has been struck | “The tower has been struck twice.” | Completed passive event |
| Simple passive | was struck | “The tower was struck by lightning.” | Past passive |
| Future perfect | will have struck | “The storm will have struck land by Friday.” | Completed future action |
A useful editorial rule is to test whether hit, removed, or affected could replace the verb. “The truck struck the barrier” means hit. “The editor struck two paragraphs” means removed. “The community was struck by an earthquake” describes an event. These uses normally require struck.
When Should You Use “Stricken”?
Use stricken when the sentence presents a person, group, place, or object as seriously affected by a condition. Typical conditions include disease, grief, poverty, fear, panic, famine, disaster, and shock.
Stricken often works as a participial adjective before a noun: “a disease-stricken population.” It can also follow a linking verb: “The population looked stricken after the evacuation.” In both cases, the word describes a state or condition rather than naming an ordinary act of hitting.
| Condition or register | Correct form | Example | Grammatical role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disease | disease-stricken | “The disease-stricken district needs clinics.” | Compound adjective |
| Grief | grief-stricken | “The grief-stricken family left quietly.” | Compound adjective |
| Poverty | poverty-stricken | “Aid reached poverty-stricken households.” | Compound adjective |
| Panic | panic-stricken | “Panic-stricken passengers crowded the exit.” | Compound adjective |
| Disaster | disaster-stricken | “The disaster-stricken region received supplies.” | Compound adjective |
| Formal affliction | stricken | “The country was stricken by famine.” | Participial adjective |
Stricken carries a severe or literary register. A news report may call a town “flood-stricken,” while a routine business email would usually say “the town affected by flooding.” The specialized form is precise when the writer wants to present the condition as grave, widespread, or emotionally significant.
Why do “stricken” compounds sound natural?
Established compounds use stricken because the word has developed an adjectival meaning, not because stricken is the general past tense. English preserves these combinations as conventional expressions, including awe-stricken, star-stricken, poverty-stricken, and battle-stricken.
Hyphenate the compound when it appears directly before a noun:
- Correct: “a panic-stricken crowd”
- Correct: “The crowd was panic-stricken.”
- Correct: “a drought-stricken county”
- Usually incorrect: “a panic stricken crowd”
The hyphen joins the first word and stricken into one modifier. When the phrase follows a linking verb, the hyphen is often omitted because the compound no longer directly precedes a noun, although house styles vary.
Can Both “Struck” and “Stricken” Be Correct?
Struck and stricken can both be correct when they express different meanings or grammatical relationships. “The virus struck the region” describes the onset of an event, while “The region was stricken by the virus” presents the region as afflicted by an ongoing or severe condition.
| Sentence | Form | Meaning | Best context |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Lightning struck the barn.” | struck | Direct physical impact | Weather report |
| “The barn was struck by lightning.” | struck | Passive physical impact | Incident report |
| “The disease-stricken barn district needed aid.” | stricken | Severe affected condition | Feature writing |
| “The region was stricken by famine.” | stricken | Formal affliction | Humanitarian report |
| “The judge struck the testimony.” | struck | Removed or rejected | Legal procedure |
| “The testimony was stricken from the record.” | stricken | Formally removed | Legal record |
The forms are not interchangeable in every sentence. Replacing struck with stricken can change a physical event into an affliction, while replacing stricken with struck can remove the intended emotional or formal register.
What is the difference between “struck by illness” and “stricken with illness”?
“Stricken with illness” presents illness as a serious condition, while “struck by illness” presents illness as a sudden event. Both can be grammatical, but stricken with is more formal and emphasizes the person’s afflicted state.
Compare these editorial choices:
- “The athlete was struck by a sudden illness” emphasizes abrupt onset.
- “The athlete was stricken with pneumonia” emphasizes serious sickness.
- “The athlete was struck by a car” describes physical impact.
- “The athlete was stricken by grief” presents an overwhelming emotional condition.
The preposition also influences the construction. Stricken with commonly introduces an illness or condition, while struck by commonly introduces an agent, event, or cause. Writers should not select stricken solely because a sentence uses a passive structure.
How Do You Choose the Correct Form in Four Steps?
Choose between struck and stricken by identifying the action, checking the tense, testing the meaning, and reviewing the phrase’s conventional form. This four-step method resolves most sentence-level problems in less than a minute.
- Identify the grammatical job.
If the word is the simple past of an action, choose struck. If it modifies a noun or describes a severe condition, consider stricken. - Look for an auxiliary verb.
After has, have, or had, use struck for ordinary actions: “The ship has struck the reef.” After was or were, inspect the meaning rather than choosing automatically. - Name the event precisely.
Physical contact, clock chimes, realization, labor action, and removal usually take struck. Illness, grief, poverty, famine, panic, and disaster often take stricken. - Check for a fixed compound or legal phrase.
Use established forms such as grief-stricken and panic-stricken. In legal writing, consult the governing style guide for struck from versus stricken from.
Expert editing rule: if replacing the word with hit preserves the sentence’s meaning, struck is usually correct. If replacing it with affected or overwhelmed preserves the meaning, stricken may be the better choice.
What Does “Stricken From the Record” Mean?
“Stricken from the record” means that a court has ordered testimony, evidence, or another filing removed from the official case record. The phrase does not describe physical impact, so legal writers may use the specialized participle stricken, although struck from the record is also standard.
| Legal phrase | Meaning | Typical jurisdiction or register | Plain-language equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| struck from the record | Removed by court order | Broad English usage | Removed |
| stricken from the record | Formally removed | U.S. legal writing | Removed |
| motion to strike | Request for removal | U.S. litigation | Removal request |
| struck out | Deleted or rejected | British and Commonwealth usage | Deleted |
| strike an allegation | Order its removal | Pleading practice | Remove an allegation |
| strike a filing | Reject or remove filing | Court administration | Reject a filing |
Legal dictionaries and court rules use both families of wording. The U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for example, use the phrase “strike from a pleading” in Rule 12(f), while lawyers and judges also write that material was stricken. The safest choice is consistency with the court’s rules, the jurisdiction’s precedent, and the document’s established terminology.
In ordinary writing, avoid using legal stricken to describe every deletion. “The editor struck the paragraph” is clearer than “the editor stricken the paragraph,” and “the paragraph was deleted” is clearer when legal formality is unnecessary.
How Does British Usage Differ From American Usage?
British and American English both use struck as the past tense, but legal and institutional expressions vary by region. British usage frequently favors struck out for deleted text or rejected pleadings, while American legal writing commonly uses stricken from the record alongside struck from the record.
The core verb remains stable:
- American English: “The workers struck last week.”
- British English: “The workers struck last week.”
- American English: “The claim was struck from the pleading.”
- British English: “The claim was struck out.”
- Both varieties: “The vessel struck a reef.”
Regional variation does not make stricken the standard past tense. A British editor would still revise “The storm stricken the coast” to “The storm struck the coast.” The difference concerns legal collocations and institutional style, not the basic irregular conjugation.
What Are the Most Common Errors?
The most common errors are using stricken as a simple past verb, confusing physical impact with affliction, omitting a compound-adjective hyphen, and treating striked as a normal modern form.
| Incorrect sentence | Correct sentence | Error type | Repair principle |
|---|---|---|---|
| “The lightning stricken the tower.” | “The lightning struck the tower.” | Wrong simple past | Use struck |
| “She was stricken by a car.” | “She was struck by a car.” | Wrong meaning | Use struck for impact |
| “The poverty stricken family left.” | “The poverty-stricken family left.” | Missing hyphen | Join compound modifier |
| “The storm has stricken the coast.” | “The storm has struck the coast.” | Ordinary participle replaced | Use struck |
| “The judge striked the objection.” | “The judge struck the objection.” | Nonstandard past form | Use struck |
| “The grief struck woman waited.” | “The grief-stricken woman waited.” | Wrong adjective form | Use established compound |
Is “striked” ever correct?
Striked is generally not the standard past tense or past participle of strike. Standard edited English uses struck for ordinary past actions and participles, although striked may appear in specialized technical jargon or learner writing.
For example, write:
- “The batter struck the ball.”
- “The ship has struck the harbor wall.”
- “The workers struck for higher wages.”
- “The court struck the clause.”
Do not infer the form from regular verbs such as walked or jumped. Strike belongs to a group of irregular verbs whose historical forms do not take the regular -ed ending.
Which Alternatives Can Replace “Struck” or “Stricken”?
Alternatives should match the intended meaning, not merely avoid a difficult verb. Use hit for direct contact, removed for deletion, affected for neutral damage, and overwhelmed for an emotional state.
| Intended meaning | Preferred word | Example | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct physical contact | hit | “The ball hit the glass.” | Neutral |
| Sudden damage | damaged | “The storm damaged the roof.” | Neutral |
| Serious regional harm | affected | “Flooding affected the district.” | Neutral |
| Emotional shock | overwhelmed | “The family was overwhelmed by grief.” | Neutral |
| Legal deletion | removed | “The court removed the passage.” | Plain |
| Formal legal deletion | stricken | “The passage was stricken from the record.” | Formal |
The alternatives lose some of strike’s precision. “The clock struck twelve” is more idiomatic than “the clock hit twelve,” while “a grief-stricken parent” is more compact and expressive than “a parent overwhelmed by grief.” Choose the original form when its specific meaning and register help the reader.
What is “strike” as a noun?
Strike is also a noun, so struck and stricken are irrelevant when the sentence names an event or action rather than describing a verb. A noun can mean a labor stoppage, a baseball attempt, a physical blow, a discovery, or a planned attack.
Examples include:
- “The transit strike lasted six days.”
- “The pitcher recorded 11 strikeouts.”
- “The worker delivered one clean strike.”
- “The company announced a strike against the proposal.”
A noun does not need a past-tense form. In “The strike began on Monday,” strike names the event, while in “The workers struck on Monday,” struck is the past-tense verb.
How Should Editors Handle Tone and Register?
Use struck as the default in general prose and reserve stricken for established compounds, severe afflictions, and deliberate formal or literary emphasis. This rule minimizes grammatical errors while preserving the expressive force of phrases such as disaster-stricken and grief-stricken.
| Writing situation | Default choice | Example | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Casual email | struck or affected | “The storm struck the area.” | Direct and familiar |
| Business report | struck or affected | “The outage affected 4,000 customers.” | Neutral precision |
| News report | struck or stricken | “A flood-stricken county requested aid.” | Concise severity |
| Creative writing | struck or stricken | “Fear-stricken, he stopped speaking.” | Deliberate emotional force |
| Court filing | struck or stricken | “The allegation was stricken.” | Follow local rules |
| Academic prose | struck or affected | “The policy affected rural clinics.” | Controlled register |
Stricken is not automatically more correct or more sophisticated. It is often less suitable for technical prose because it can imply emotional severity, while affected supplies a neutral description. A public-health report may prefer “areas affected by influenza” over “influenza-stricken areas” when it needs measured language.
What does “struck dumb” mean?
Struck dumb is an idiomatic expression meaning rendered unable or unwilling to speak by shock, surprise, or amazement. The expression uses struck, not stricken, because English has preserved it as a fixed idiom.
Other established phrases include:
- struck by surprise
- struck by the beauty of the landscape
- struck with wonder
- struck silent
- struck a bargain
- struck a chord
Some phrases use stricken instead:
- awe-stricken
- panic-stricken
- grief-stricken
- terror-stricken
- conscience-stricken
Fixed expressions must be learned as collocations. A writer who changes every emotional phrase to stricken may produce “stricken by the beauty,” which is possible but less common than “struck by the beauty.”
FAQ
What is the past tense and past participle of strike?
The standard past tense of strike is struck, and the standard past participle is also struck. The complete core pattern is strike, struck, struck. Stricken remains available as a specialized participle or adjective in expressions involving illness, grief, poverty, disaster, and formal legal removal.
Should I write “has struck” or “has stricken”?
Write has struck for an ordinary action: “The storm has struck the coast.” Use has stricken only when the sentence presents something as afflicted in a formal or literary sense, such as “The disease has stricken several villages.” In most general prose, has struck is the safer default.
Is “stricken with fear” correct?
Yes. Stricken with fear is grammatical and formal, although overcome with fear or struck by fear may sound more natural in conversational writing. Fear-stricken is also correct before a noun: “a fear-stricken witness.” The choice depends on whether the writer wants a severe, literary, or neutral tone.
Is “struck with illness” correct?
Yes, struck with illness can describe a sudden onset, but stricken with illness emphasizes serious affliction. “He was struck with a fever” focuses on the event, while “he was stricken with pneumonia” presents pneumonia as a grave condition. Physical impact requires struck by, as in “struck by a vehicle.”
Should I write “struck off” or “stricken off”?
Struck off is the established phrase in many British and Commonwealth contexts, especially for removing a name from a list or register. Stricken off appears in some formal American and general usage, but it is less universally preferred. Follow the jurisdiction’s style guide when the phrase appears in legal or regulatory writing.
What is the easiest way to remember the difference?
Remember struck equals an action and stricken equals an affliction. A hammer struck the wall, a bell struck noon, and a court struck the sentence. A grief-stricken family, a drought-stricken region, and a panic-stricken crowd describe conditions rather than ordinary blows.
The Bottom Line
The answer to struck or stricken whats the past tense of strike is struck. Use struck for the simple past, ordinary past participle, physical impact, sudden realization, clock sounds, labor action, and most passive constructions. Use stricken for severe affliction, established compounds such as panic-stricken, and selected legal or formal expressions. When uncertain, choose struck for an action and stricken for a condition.
