phrasal verb · neutral

look past

UK/lʊk pɑːst/US/lʊk pæst/LOOK·PAST

task2speaking

to ignore, fail to notice something, or to pass by someone or something

Examples

Don't look past the safety issues when approving the project.

He looked past me as if I weren't there.

The car looked past the junction and caused an accident.

Band 8 sentence

Regulators must not look past minor breaches, because small lapses can lead to systemic failures.

Collocations

  • look past the warning signs
  • look past someone

Word family

look past phrasal verbpast preposition / adverb / adjective

Common mistakes

look past = look beyondlook past

look past tolook past

Say it for a higher band

5ignore6overlook7+look past

Synonyms

ignore

overlook

Easily confused

overlook

She overlooked an obvious mistake in the report.

Related words

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In look …

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