Wake (irregular verb)

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'To wake' is an irregular verb. Its forms are given here:

Base form past tense -ed participle Remarks
wake woke (rarely waked) woken (rarely waked) Base form also exists with a terminal '-n': waken
For the -ed participle, "woken is at least as frequent as waked" (OED).
This is one of the "the 250 or so irregular verbs" listed in Quirk 1985. The list "contains most of the irregular verbs in present-day English ... but is not meant to be exhaustive, particularly with regard to derivative verbs." AWE has copied most of the entries in that list. The verb 'to wake' belongs to Quirk's Class 4 Aa
You may also want to see awake - awaken - wake - waken, or the similar awake (irregular verb).


Woke also exists as an adjective, particularly, says OED (20127), "in African-American usage", where it has developed from the predictable sense 1 " 1. Awake; not (or no longer) asleep" through "Originally: well-informed, up-to-date" into the more colloquial "Now chiefly: alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice; frequently in stay woke (often used as an exhortation)."