emerge
Americanverb (used without object)
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emerges,
present (3rd person singular)
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emerged,
past participle, past
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emerging
present participle
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to come forth into view or notice, as from concealment or obscurity.
a ghost emerging from the grave;
a ship emerging from the fog.
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to rise or come forth from or as if from water or other liquid.
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to come up or arise, as a question or difficulty.
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to come into existence; develop.
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to rise, as from an inferior or unfortunate state or condition.
verb
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to come up to the surface of or rise from water or other liquid
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to come into view, as from concealment or obscurity
he emerged from the cave
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(foll by from) to come out (of) or live (through a difficult experience)
he emerged from his ordeal with dignity
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to become apparent
several interesting things emerged from the report
Usage
What are other ways to say emerge? To emerge is to come forth into view or notice, as from concealment or obscurity. How is emerge different from emanate and issue? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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emergesimple
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emergessimple
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have emergedperfect
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has emergedperfect
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am emergingprogressive
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are emergingprogressive
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is emergingprogressive
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have been emergingperfect progressive
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has been emergingperfect progressive
Past
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emergedsimple
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had emergedperfect
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was emergingprogressive
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were emergingprogressive
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had been emergingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of emerge
First recorded in 1630–40; from Latin ēmergere “to arise out of,” equivalent to ē- e- 1 + mergere “to dive, sink”
Explanation
To emerge means to come out into view or come forth. You might hope to emerge from an epic perming session looking like a beauty queen, but chances are it will just look like you got electrocuted. From the Latin emergere, meaning to “rise out or up, bring forth, bring to light,” emerge is an intransitive verb that might bring to mind the image of a whale rising up from the depths of the sea, or of a person popping out from a dark corner to spook you. Appear and peep are synonyms, while dip and sink are antonyms.
Vocabulary lists containing emerge
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List 1
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The Vernal Vocabulary of Spring
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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:
Eusociality seemed to emerge more frequently among haplodiploid insects.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
Even after a perfect home inspection, hidden issues can emerge after a new homeowner moves in.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
Ergen has put Dish subsidiaries into bankruptcy protection and is positioning EchoStar to emerge with tens of billions of dollars from spectrum sales, including to SpaceX, which has indicated plans to expand into mobile service.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Taylor also says he thinks his fellow officials should think twice before criticising their former colleagues in the media and talks of his hopes of helping Turkish football emerge from a sprawling referee betting scandal.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
She turned just in time to see the tattered sleeve of the thief emerge from her bag, dirty hand clutching her coin purse.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
Nero’s bridge emerges from Tiber amid Rome drought.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
That connection could make the signals especially useful for investigating strongly correlated systems, where the behavior of the material emerges from interactions among many particles rather than from individual particles acting on their own.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 12, 2026
“There’s a beetle that emerges on the cusp of summer. It has lots of colors. Blue, gold, purple. It looks like a turtle,” she tells a befuddled Rhaenyra.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
The Chopin that emerges in “Becoming George” is far from a Romantic beau ideal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
A curling breeze emerges from nowhere, lifting the ends of my hair.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
She emerged from the reggaeton thunderstorm that hijacked the planet, but then guided it smoothly into a different aesthetic territory, far away from the movement’s misogynistic toxicity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
A new generation of weight loss medications has emerged in recent years that act on specific receptors involved in appetite.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
Wearing ballet flats for purposes other than ballet itself is a trend that first emerged in the 1940s.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
In recent years, companies have emerged with names like U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Once the dogs were gone, the two emerged out of the small opening.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
The detector repeatedly records more baryons than antibaryons emerging sideways from the collisions, perpendicular to the direction of the incoming beams.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
But some experts believe a new strategy emerging from his administration could avert a more consequential defeat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
High-quality bonds carry a correlation to the S&P 500 of roughly 0.24 — by far the lowest of any major asset class — compared with roughly 0.66 for both developed and emerging international equities.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
Graham earned just 33 percent of the vote, a rather light primary showing for a sympathetic figure emerging from loss who’s campaigning with the president’s endorsement.
From Slate ● Aug. 15, 2026
Hale rode up fiercely on his horse, emerging from the tall prairie grasses.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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.
