be
verb (used without object)
to exist or live.
be
1 American
[bee, bi]
/ bi, bɪ /
verb (used without object)
-
am,
present (1st person singular)
-
are,
present (2nd person singular), present (plural)
-
is,
present (3rd person singular)
-
was,
past (1st person), past (1st & 3rd person singular)
-
were,
past (2nd person singular), past (plural), past subjunctive
-
been,
past participle
-
being
present participle
-
to exist or live.
Shakespeare's “To be or not to be” is the ultimate question.
-
to take place; happen; occur.
The wedding was last week.
-
to occupy a place or position.
The book is on the table.
-
to continue or remain as before.
Let things be.
-
to belong; attend; befall.
May good fortune be with you.
-
(used as a copula to connect the subject with its predicate adjective, or predicate nominative, in order to describe, identify, or amplify the subject).
Martha is tall. John is president. This is she.
-
(used as a copula to introduce or form interrogative or imperative sentences).
Is that right? Be quiet! Don't be facetious.
auxiliary verb
-
am,
present (1st person singular)
-
are,
present (2nd person singular), present (plural)
-
is,
present (3rd person singular)
-
was,
past (1st person), past (1st & 3rd person singular)
-
were,
past (2nd person singular), past (plural), past subjunctive, past (2nd person singular), past (plural)
-
been,
past participle
-
being
present participle
-
(used with the present participle of another verb to form the progressive tense).
I am waiting.
-
(used with the present participle or infinitive of the principal verb to indicate future action).
She is visiting there next week. He is to see me today.
-
(used with the past participle of another verb to form the passive voice).
The date was fixed. It must be done.
-
(used in archaic or literary constructions with some intransitive verbs to form the perfect tense).
He is come. Agamemnon to the wars is gone.
verb (used with object)
-
am,
present (1st person singular)
-
are,
present (plural), present (2nd person singular)
-
is,
present (3rd person singular)
-
was,
past (1st person), past (1st & 3rd person singular)
-
were
past (2nd person singular), past (plural)
Be
2
American
Symbol, Chemistry.
Bé.
3
American
abbreviation
B/E
4
American
Or
b.e.
be-
5
American
B.E.
6
American
abbreviation
-
Bachelor of Education.
-
Bachelor of Engineering.
-
Bank of England.
-
bill of exchange.
-
Board of Education.
be
1
British
/ biː, bɪ /
verb
-
to have presence in the realm of perceived reality; exist; live
I think, therefore I am
not all that is can be understood
-
(used in the perfect or past perfect tenses only) to pay a visit; go
have you been to Spain?
-
to take place; occur
my birthday was last Thursday
-
(copula) used as a linking verb between the subject of a sentence and its noun or adjective complement or complementing phrase. In this case be expresses the relationship of either essential or incidental equivalence or identity ( John is a man; John is a musician ) or specifies an essential or incidental attribute ( honey is sweet; Susan is angry ). It is also used with an adverbial complement to indicate a relationship of location in space or time ( Bill is at the office; the dance is on Saturday )
-
(takes a present participle) forms the progressive present tense
the man is running
-
(takes a past participle) forms the passive voice of all transitive verbs and (archaically) certain intransitive ones
a good film is being shown on television tonight
I am done
-
(takes an infinitive) expresses intention, expectation, supposition, or obligation
the president is to arrive at 9.30
you are not to leave before I say so
-
(takes a past participle) forms the perfect or past perfect tense of certain intransitive verbs of motion, such as go or come
the last train is gone
-
the facts concerning (something) are of no importance
be-
2
British
prefix
-
(from nouns) to surround completely; cover on all sides
befog
-
(from nouns) to affect completely or excessively
bedazzle
-
(from nouns) to consider as or cause to be
befool
befriend
-
(from nouns) to provide or cover with
bejewel
-
(from verbs) at, for, against, on, or over
bewail
berate
BE
3
British
abbreviation
-
bill of exchange
-
(in the US) Board of Education
-
Bachelor of Education
-
Bachelor of Engineering
Bé
4
British
abbreviation
Be
5
British
symbol
B/E
6
British
abbreviation
be
7
British
abbreviation
be
Idioms
Grammar
See me.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
amsimple
-
aresimple
-
issimple
-
have beenperfect
-
has beenperfect
-
am beingprogressive
-
are beingprogressive
-
is beingprogressive
-
have been beingperfect progressive
-
has been beingperfect progressive
Past
-
wassimple
-
weresimple
-
had beenperfect
-
was beingprogressive
-
were beingprogressive
-
had been beingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of be1
First recorded before 900; Middle English been, Old English bēon “to be” (akin to Old Frisian, Old High German bim, German bin, Old Saxon bium, biom “(I) am,” Old English, Old High German, Old Saxon būan, Old Norse būa “reside,” Latin fuī “(I) have been,“ Greek phy- “grow, become,” Old Irish boí “(he) was,” Sanskrit bhávati “(he) becomes, is,” Lithuanian búti “to be,” Old Church Slavonic byti, Persian būdan “to be”); see am, is, are 1, was, were
Origin of be-5
Middle English, Old English, unstressed form of bī by
Explanation
To be is to exist, or to take place. As Hamlet best put it: "To be or not to be, that is the question." The verb be is one of the most frequently used words in English, and it often takes the form of am, are, were, or was. When you make plans to meet someone later, you could say, "I'll be on the steps in front of the library," and when you talk about your goals, you might confess, "I want to be a movie star." It's a verb with a complicated history, stemming mainly from the Old English bēon, "be, exist, or happen."
Vocabulary lists containing be
Scrabble: Two-Letter Words
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Spelling Practice, Unit 8
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Spelling Practice 1, Unit 3
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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:
“We often see a technology shift when the new approach is 10 times better. It can be 10 times more performant or 10 times cheaper, sometimes both.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
Sanctions are yet to be announced and City have lodged an appeal against the verdict.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
By 2029, potential Democratic members of the class of 2026—Roy Cooper, Mr. Brown, Mary Peltola, Josh Turek, Abdul El-Sayed and company—would all be ensconced in the Dirksen, Russell and Hart office buildings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
But if the war intensifies before mid-November, those races will have to be cancelled.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
Would Mr. Gage consider coming to Boston at Dr. Bigelow's expense so his case could be presented at the medical school and before the Boston Society of Medical Improvement?
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
“Get ready to do your job as best as you can; that’s the message. It’s always been the message. And it’ll always be the message. Be at your best when you’re needed.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2026
In a less friendly profile for the same magazine published this April, titled “Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted?,”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Be careful about comparing household finances with government finances, even if it’s a tempting comparison.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
Just give a listen to “Pretend to Be Nice” from 2001’s “Josie and the Pussycats.”
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
He nodded and got excited in that embarrassing way parents get when they try to Be Involved in Their Kids’ Lives and also possibly try to Distract Them from Their MIA Mother.
From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller
By using a bath composed of half-neutralised phenolsulphonic acid and quebracho extract in 7° Bé. solution, another piece of pelt was completely tanned in two days.
From Synthetic Tannins by Georg Grasser
Such experiments may be done, for instance, by preparing 2° Bé. solutions of each extract and then mixing them in proportions of, say, 10:90, 20:80, 30:70, etc.
From Synthetic Tannins by Georg Grasser
The partly neutralised 2° Bé. solution of this product yielded a reddish-grey coloured leather, the qualities of which were very similar to that yielded by Neradol D. 3.
From Synthetic Tannins by Georg Grasser
Above 10° Bé. the effect is more that of an acid with concentrations below 10° Bé.—the only ones of technical importance—however, no ill-effects may be observed.
From Synthetic Tannins by Georg Grasser
The solution is then evaporated, the residue dissolved in 600 c.c. hot water, and the chromium precipitated with a 40° Bé. solution of caustic soda.
From Synthetic Tannins by Georg Grasser
Khoury’s father, Amin J. Khoury, founded Wellington, Florida-based B/E Aerospace, an aircraft cabin interiors maker that was bought in 2017 for more than $6 billion.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 6, 2022
Rockwell Collins, a longtime supplier of radio and flight displays to Boeing, last year bought B/E Aerospace, the largest cabin-equipment supplier.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 16, 2018
Numerous phone calls requesting an interview with executives from B/E Aerospace, which has its headquarters in Wellington, Fla., were not returned.
From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2016
“In today’s environment, the goal is to fit as many seats in the cabin as possible,” said Tom Plant, the general manager for seating products at B/E Aerospace, one of the top airplane seat makers.
From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2013
"B/E Aerospace may also guide below consensus," Stallard said.
From Reuters ● Oct. 18, 2010
What rotten luck for you that “The Grapes of Wrath” should not only have come out be- fore your book was submitted but should have so swept the country!
From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2024
Offering participants a discreet way to alert the moderator to their discomfort- for example by giving them remote buttons they can use to 'bring the researcher in' if need be- may be effective.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 15, 2023
Buteglute has given him his chance to be- to be- the most famous-ah- to do a good thing.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 20, 2023
My original encounter from the store got in line for her pic next, then be- came the photographer for the rest of the meet-and-greet.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 22, 2019
That and the kindness thing I said be-
From "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart
Earlier Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed head of Crimea, said air defence systems had been in action around a Kerch shipyard named after B.E.
From Reuters ● Nov. 4, 2023
"It was back in 2019 and I was sitting in my box room at home, quietly sulking and downloading application forms for jobs in PR," said the 48-year-old, who writes under the pen name B.E.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2023
The thriller is adapted from a book of the same name by B.E.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 14, 2023
It also features five commissions from the WNO: Atlanta composer B.E.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 12, 2022
Instead it was his father who did the talking, saying that the man had gone to St. Xavier’s, and then B.E.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
BE Semiconductor Industries, the Dutch supplier of semiconductor assembly equipment, is up 0.4%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
BE Semiconductor stock tumbled after a report said that some of the Dutch group’s main customers are delaying uptake of its advanced hybrid bonding technology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
BE Semiconductor Industries raised its long-term revenue and profitability targets, citing increased demand for AI-related products.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
YOU HAD TO BE HERE: After the June 24 game between Brazil and Sweden, a thunderstorm passed directly over the media tent as hundreds of journalists were filing their stories.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 1994
“Stay calm, stay calm, this is serious. Just BE CALM.”
From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook
Bé Ù, a Vietnamese restaurant in Virgil Village, will be open Friday, but owner Uyên Lê said that’s because she does her community organizing work through the business.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2026
Last summer, Uyên Lê, owner and chef at Bé Ù Vietnamese Street Food in East Hollywood, was scraping out her Sriracha bottles and trying to ration her supply.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2023
Bé Ù offered free meals in exchange for Huy Fong Sriracha sauce, and it got around 300 bottles during the promotion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2023
Opened last year, Le Grand Bé is a big, splashy, four-star addition to St-Malo’s historical walled center.
From New York Times ● Aug. 22, 2019
Fanirin pointed him out to Nekhludoff as Bé, "a most honorable gentleman."
From The Awakening The Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy, Count
I am grateful to @MarkJCarney for his sympathy for Ukrainians amid the ongoing Russian strikes.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
"We cannot keep treating these deaths as normal. Safe and legal pathways save lives. I am asking governments and donors to act before the next boat goes down."
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
“I am very uncomfortable about people trying to ascribe religious force or a surrender of human judgment to AI models, and think it is a real safety issue,” Altman posted on X a weekend ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
"I'm bound to be, I am 103-and-a-half, and I was the youngest by two years," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
But I am sure it was Marlene who was the saving of them because Marlene made them laugh.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
And then there are unforeseen events like divorce.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
There is some doubt about the mathematics of the championship because it is not completely clear how many races are remaining.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
Several interceptors are in testing, and developers receive near-instantaneous feedback and adjust accordingly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
Sanctions are yet to be announced and City have lodged an appeal against the verdict.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
The Japanese military orders all newspapers to stop printing and all bookstores are searched.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
The memory size is reduced by roughly 9 to 10 times.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
The difficulty is finding a way to minimize their capacity to control territory without trampling republican values.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
The FTC concedes as much, stating in its August enforcement bulletin that “the extent to which businesses currently use personalized pricing is not well understood, and the effects of personalized pricing on consumers are unclear.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
The net effect is that cartel income increases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
“Sometimes, it seems the easiest thing to do is try to create a ‘stand-in’ personality, one that pleases everyone.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Today, there was a statement from the President of the United States that an energy ceasefire has been secured.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
Iliman Ndiaye: Dangerous on the ball and had a few threatening moments before he was replaced by Doku.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
The Ukrainian leader welcomed the proposed ceasefire but emphasized that Kyiv was still waiting for details from Washington and a response from Moscow.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
His first stop was six laps before Leclerc's and when the Monegasque emerged back on to the track, Hamilton was right behind him and was initially faster.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
She was the granddaughter of a provincial governor and the daughter of a highly respected attorney and judge.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
For them, liberty and virtue were the two pillars on which any good society rests.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
Thames Water said supplies had been restored and permanent repairs were under way.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
Fusionists were liberals, but their liberalism differed from that of the progressives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
Customers were told to leave rides and exit the resort at about 13:00 BST on Sunday.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
More than 1,000 American troops, 16,600 Japanese troops, and 100,000 Filipinos were killed.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
To the extent it’s possible for the U.S. to assist neighbors in recovering democratic institutions that have been lost to organized crime, the initiative has promise.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
Today, there was a statement from the President of the United States that an energy ceasefire has been secured.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
It's just been more driveable and more predictable.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
Silicon Valley’s mantra for decades has been smaller, cheaper, faster, better.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
Father has been more alive, having someone else share his journey.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
South Yorkshire Police said the man's family were being supported by officers.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
“When you see the amount of capital that’s flowing in, when you see the profits that are being created, to me, this does not look like an economy that has restraint,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
Some migrants fled into nearby hills to avoid being put on buses.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
After all, one of the biggest pet peeves of modern makers is the perception of their craft as being a frivolous hobby, rather than centuries-old skills that served as a foundation of modern engineering.
From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2026
“This makes no sense. I would have heard about this many kids being killed,” I conclude.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
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.
