occur
Americanverb (used without object)
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occurs,
present (3rd person singular)
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occurred,
past participle, past
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occurring
present participle
verb
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to happen; take place; come about
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to be found or be present; exist
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(foll by to) to be realized or thought of (by); suggest itself (to)
Usage
It is usually regarded as incorrect to talk of pre-arranged events occurring or happening : the wedding took place (not occurred or happened ) in the afternoon
Synonym Usage
See happen.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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occursimple
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occurssimple
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have occurredperfect
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has occurredperfect
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am occurringprogressive
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are occurringprogressive
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is occurringprogressive
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have been occurringperfect progressive
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has been occurringperfect progressive
Past
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occurredsimple
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had occurredperfect
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was occurringprogressive
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were occurringprogressive
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had been occurringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of occur
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin occurrere “to run to meet, arrive, meet,” equivalent to oc- oc- + currere “to run”
Explanation
Use the verb occur when an event or a thought happens, like when it occurs to you that you've left home without your umbrella. Maybe you didn't hear the forecast that showers would occur this afternoon. The verb occur comes from the Latin, occurrere, “to meet” or “to present itself.” When something occurs, it comes into being, like a thought that seems to present itself from out of the blue, like when it suddenly occurs to you that you forgot to ask your guests if they'd like a cup of tea, or that it would never occur to your Mother that some people spend a small fortune on handbags. Events can also occur, meaning "take place," like a meeting that will occur tomorrow.
Vocabulary lists containing occur
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Make a Run for It: Cur, Curs
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Common Five-letter Words for Wordle, List 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
When asked about allegations that individuals were being conscripted outside their home township, he said transfers from other townships do occur when local quotas cannot be met.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
It was an attempt to formalize the notion that some ideas are ahead of their time, and to get a sense of how often they occur and how long they typically lie fallow.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Plague is a bacterial disease that can occur in several forms, including pneumonic plague, the most contagious type, which can spread through respiratory droplets.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
Mendoza said that an increase in school police is the only action that she feels could help her son and his peers — and provide more clarity to families when incidents occur.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
It didn’t even occur to me to wonder what language we were speaking.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
Estrangement typically occurs on a continuum—and parents don’t always recognize the signs, says Kristina Scharp, a communication professor at Rutgers University who studies the issue.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
El Nino, which occurs approximately every two to seven years, raises surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean and causes global changes in winds and rainfall.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
There are also psychological and behavioral reasons why incessant checking of your portfolio occurs — and why it can be counterproductive.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
Around June 21, the corresponding effect occurs over South America and South Africa.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
Discrimination learning occurs by rote, and occurs when a teacher teaches the basic building blocks of music—vocabulary and aural and rhythmic patterns.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
The AI run-up has occurred against a backdrop in which investors face such challenges as surging bond yields, which are pushing prices of that debt lower and making stocks appear more expensive, he said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 10, 2026
The so-called Beast from the East in 2018 actually occurred during a La Niña year, effectively the opposite of El Niño.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
The company has settled several lawsuits resulting from collisions that occurred on autopilot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Instead, the largest increases occurred around predictable events such as keeper arrivals and times when the animals were moved between areas of their habitat.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
It never occurred to me that I should’ve been more interested in whether or not he was the boyfriend I wanted.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Previous experiments could capture individual parts of this process, but they could not provide a combined picture of both the electronic changes inside the molecule and the reorganization occurring around it.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
But attacks are intensifying, with more than half of all strikes on locomotives since then occurring this year alone, according to the state-owned operator.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
Combining measurements from Juice and Smile could give scientists a rare way to link activity deep in Earth's magnetotail with events occurring around the planet's polar regions.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 3, 2026
RAC said diesel prices had entered "uncharted territory" and served as a reminder of "just how exposed the UK is to events occurring far away".
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
Even more unnerving, because they are less well understood and capable of occurring anywhere at any time, are the rarer type of shakings known as intraplate quakes.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
