own
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, or belonging to oneself or itself (usually used after a possessive to emphasize the idea of ownership, interest, or relation conveyed by the possessive).
He spent only his own money.
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(used as an intensifier to indicate oneself as the sole agent of some activity or action, preceded by a possessive).
He insists on being his own doctor.
verb (used with object)
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owns,
present (3rd person singular)
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owned,
past participle, past
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owning
present participle
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to have or hold as one's own; possess.
They own several homes.
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to acknowledge or admit.
to own a fault.
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to acknowledge as one's own; recognize as having full claim, authority, power, dominion, etc..
He owned his child before the entire assembly. They owned the king as their lord.
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to totally defeat, gain control over, or dominate in a competition.
I totally owned the last two levels of the game.
He owned the season from beginning to end and took the world title.
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to take over a (a computer system, program, or computer) without authorization.
The network has been owned by a hacker.
verb (used without object)
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owns,
present (3rd person singular)
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owned,
past participle, past
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owning
present participle
idioms
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get one's own back, to get revenge and thereby a sense of personal satisfaction, as for a slight or a previous setback; get even with somebody or something.
He saw the award as a way of getting his own back for all the snubs by his colleagues.
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of one's own, belonging to oneself.
She had never had a room of her own.
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come into one's own,
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to take possession of that which is due or owed one.
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to receive the recognition that one's abilities merit.
She finally came into her own as a sculptor of the first magnitude.
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on one's own,
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by dint of one's own efforts, resources, or sense of responsibility; independently.
Because she spoke the language, she got around the country very well on her own.
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living or functioning without dependence on others; independent.
My son's been on his own for several years.
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hold one's own,
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to maintain one's position or condition.
The stock market seems to be holding its own these days.
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to be equal to the opposition.
He can hold his own in any fight.
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determiner
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(intensifier)
John's own idea
your own mother
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( as pronoun )
I'll use my own
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on behalf of oneself or in relation to oneself
he is his own worst enemy
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to become fulfilled
she really came into her own when she got divorced
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to receive what is due to one
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-
informal to have revenge
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to maintain one's situation or position, esp in spite of opposition or difficulty
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without help
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by oneself; alone
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verb
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(tr) to have as one's possession
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to confess or admit; acknowledge
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rare (tr; takes a clause as object) to concede
I own that you are right
Synonym Usage
See have.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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ownsimple
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ownssimple
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have ownedperfect
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has ownedperfect
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am owningprogressive
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are owningprogressive
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is owningprogressive
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have been owningperfect progressive
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has been owningperfect progressive
Past
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ownedsimple
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had ownedperfect
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was owningprogressive
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were owningprogressive
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had been owningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of own
First recorded before 900; (adjective) Middle English owen, Old English āgen (cognate with German eigen, Old Norse eigenn ), originally the past participle of āgan “to possess” ( see owe); (verb) Middle English ownen, Old English āgnian, āhnian, derivative of āgen
Explanation
If you own something, it belongs to you. You can use the verb own to describe possession of any kind of property, ranging from a saucepan to a fancy mansion. If something can be bought, it can be owned. You wouldn’t say that you own people or intangible objects. But you might own a car, for example, and if you’re lucky, you might own a lot of really cool shoes. Own can also be an adjective describing something that belongs to a particular person, like your own bedroom, or your own mind. If you admit to something, you "own up to it," admitting the responsibility belongs to you.
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:
In July, Anthropic's Claude escaped its test environment to hack three organisations on its own just days after OpenAI said its models had carried out cyber-attacks against several "publicly available services".
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
He cleaned them and realized that the mark, which looked like it was from a pencil eraser, was in his own field of vision.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
But in order to survive the woods, Murphy will have to dig deep into his wartime past and rely on his own skills and smarts to make out it out intact.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
The people who own units in the building potentially face giant out-of-pocket costs.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
As I reached to accept them, Trey brought up his other hand, capturing the hollow shafts of the feathers and my hand between both of his own.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
“His only job…is not operational,” said Henry Asher, president of the Northstar Group, which owns shares of Berkshire.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
“They didn’t even know about it until they heard it from their nephews,” said Askia, 58, who owns the apothecary with his wife.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
A settlement involving drinks equipment sold to Marylebone Cricket Club, which owns Lords, which generated £62,000.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Berkshire Hathaway owns about 10% of the stock of each of these five companies.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
“I’ve seen his name in the newspapers. He’s something to do with computers. And he owns racehorses. Doesn’t he come from somewhere in Egypt?”
From "Stormbreaker" by Anthony Horowitz
Fire crews responded to a structure fire at the Moss Landing Power Plant, owned by Vistra Corp., around 6:15 a.m.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Guitars owned by The Smiths musician Johnny Marr have sold for almost £4m at auction.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Lasek, whose family long owned a textile business that supplied Ralph Lauren and other major brands, summered in the Hamptons and nearby Fire Island for years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
On top of that, Roebuck’s son had recently evicted Jeramy from a house he owned.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
Just outside of Chiba, at a refinery owned by Cosmo Oil, a huge storage tank had been filled with water—instead of the lighter natural gas it was meant to hold—for inspection.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
Until last year, Conroy, 32, and his partner Amber, 28, saw little prospect of owning their own home.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
“I don’t think the future of the internet should be one company owning the browser, the model, and the data on the user. That seems like a stark future,” Enzor-DeMeo said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Sometimes, Saunders wonders whether the path she followed — go to college, get a job — would have led to her owning a home if she’d come of age in a different generation.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
The conventional gold model says hotter inflation increases the probability of higher interest rates, raising the opportunity cost of owning a nonyielding asset like gold.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
“Let’s back up just a moment. If the law, as you say, prevented the Miyamotos from owning land, what was the point of this sale agreement?”
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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.
