beget
Americanverb (used with object)
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begets,
present (3rd person singular)
-
begot,
past participle, past
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begat,
past (Archaic)
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begotten,
past participle (Archaic)
-
begetting
present participle
verb
-
to father
-
to cause or create
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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begetsimple
-
begetssimple
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have begotperfect
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have begottenperfect
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has begotperfect
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has begottenperfect
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am begettingprogressive
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are begettingprogressive
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is begettingprogressive
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have been begettingperfect progressive
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has been begettingperfect progressive
Past
-
begatsimple
-
begotsimple
-
had begotperfect
-
had begottenperfect
-
was begettingprogressive
-
were begettingprogressive
-
had been begettingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of beget
First recorded before 1000; Middle English begeten ( see be-, get); replacing Middle English biyeten, Old English begetan; cognate with Gothic bigitan, Old High German bigezzan
Explanation
To beget means to generate something, usually children, and it can be used to refer to the role of either a mother or a father. If we analyze the word beget, we get the prefix be-, which tends to intensify the meaning of the following verb, and get, which means to cause something to enter one's possession. The word is usually used to refer to having children, although it can be used to refer to anything that generates something else — for example, an inspiration can beget a brilliant idea.
Vocabulary lists containing beget
Motherlode: A Mother's Day Lexicon
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Words for Father's Day: What Fathers Do
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Words from Shakespearean Insults
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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:
“And selling could beget selling. It could be a waterfall event.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
That creates a positive feedback loop — weaker winds beget more warm water shifting to the east, which weakens winds even more.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
In general, strong stock markets beget IPO booms, and cycles can be long-lasting.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
These downturns would create cracks in anyone’s self-esteem, but for people with NPD, the newly created cognitive dissonance between their self-image and the setback can beget a personality crisis.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2025
The only recognized purpose of marriage was to beget children for the service of the Party.
From "1984" by George Orwell
Magalon and Santiago link lower budgets to more artistic freedom, which begets better films.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026
In markets, strength often begets more strength, or, as technicians like to say, trends once in motion tend to remain that way more likely than they are to reverse.
From Barron's ● Jan. 13, 2026
Risk begets risk — for young men as much as anyone.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 22, 2025
The need to protect past lies begets new lies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2025
Because technology begets more technology, the importance of an invention’s diffusion potentially exceeds the importance of the original invention.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
He’s written and produced hundreds of hours of television, and conceived the WGA’s Television Writers Handbook, which begat the WGA’s Showrunner Training Program.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2026
“Survivor” begat “The Apprentice,” sharing an executive producer in Mark Burnett.
From Salon ● May 31, 2025
Yet that begat one of the greatest turnarounds in league history, which started with the hiring of Will Kuntz as senior vice-president of player personnel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2024
But that broken leg also begat the greatest comeback in NFL history and led to one of the gifts Smith gave Washington football fans — a rare Thanksgiving Day win over the Dallas Cowboys.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 22, 2023
In fact, rather than Pythagoras’s triangle, there was a circle, or a cycle, at work: form begat information, and then information begat form.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Project Plowshares, the program that begot this test, bears more than a passing resemblance to today’s efforts to apply ever more powerful artificial-intelligence models to every area of human endeavor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
Meet the next Asian film fighting style that will clobber Hollywood slap-happy just as Hong Kong wire-fu spawned “The Matrix” and Indonesia’s “The Raid” begot “John Wick.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
Likewise, expectations are heavy on Dunn, 26, after a breakout 14-goal and team-high 50-assist season begot a four-year, $29.4 million extension.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 9, 2023
Wins begot wins: He added staff, including veteran federal prosecutors, and hashed out arrangements with law enforcement allowing his agency to bring its own criminal cases in court, an unusual privilege.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 20, 2022
Here he married, built a great manor house, fathered Antiphates and Mantios, commanders both, of whom Antiphates begot Oikleies and Oikleies the firebrand Amphiaraos.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
Investment has begotten investment and driven philanthropic interest, with Gray’s organization poised to help build a $54 million, 219-unit affordable-housing complex.
From New York Times ● Nov. 18, 2021
Oedipus, having begat where he was begotten, took responsibility and blinded himself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2020
He trusted the promise of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 27, 2019
Globetrotting has begotten congressional scrutiny and the media’s glare.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 12, 2019
Or, if begotten, to have fallen from the womb Straight into the grave, And to be smothered, unknowing, In the dirt of Hades.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
The slicing and dicing of available tables can mean there are only so many seats at the most sought-after establishments, begetting a sense of scarcity at the highest levels.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
That trend could itself be causing a vicious cycle of fewer children begetting fewer children, said Takuya Hoshino, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.
From Reuters ● Aug. 30, 2023
Some executives argue that zeal over returning to the office can build on itself, with occupants begetting more occupants.
From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2022
The son of a goddess and a prince, he carried the ancestral burden of begetting a lineage of rulers in a foreign land.
From Salon ● Feb. 6, 2022
Emily Brent thought to herself: "I shall begetting a free holiday at any rate."
From "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie
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.
