become
Americanverb (used without object)
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becomes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
became,
past
-
become,
past participle
-
becoming
present participle
-
to come, change, or grow to be (as specified).
He became tired.
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to come into being.
verb (used with object)
-
becomes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
became,
past
-
become,
past participle
-
becoming
present participle
-
to be attractive on; befit in appearance; look well on.
That gown becomes you.
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to be suitable or necessary to the dignity, situation, or responsibility of.
conduct that becomes an officer.
idioms
verb
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(copula) to come to be; develop or grow into
he became a monster
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(foll by of; usually used in a question) to fall to or be the lot (of); happen (to)
what became of him?
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(tr) (of clothes, etc) to enhance the appearance of (someone); suit
that dress becomes you
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(tr) to be appropriate; befit
it ill becomes you to complain
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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becomesimple
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becomessimple
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have becomeperfect
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has becomeperfect
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am becomingprogressive
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are becomingprogressive
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is becomingprogressive
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have been becomingperfect progressive
-
has been becomingperfect progressive
Past
-
becamesimple
-
had becomeperfect
-
was becomingprogressive
-
were becomingprogressive
-
had been becomingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of become
First recorded before 900; Middle English becumen, Old English becuman “to come about, happen”; cognate with Dutch bekomen, German bekommen, Gothic biqiman. See be-, come
Explanation
To become is to evolve, change into, or emerge as something. A fertilized egg will hatch and the tiny chick will become a full-grown chicken. When you become angrier and angrier watching the TV news, you begin to feel a certain way. Likewise, when Pinocchio the wooden puppet becomes a real boy in the fairy tale, he changes from toy to human. The word become can also mean "learn how to be" or "be qualified for," as when you dream that some day you'll become an astronaut. The Old English becuman has these meanings, and also "meet with" or "arrive."
Vocabulary lists containing become
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:
“Rocky” went on to become the highest-grossing film of 1976, winning best picture at the Academy Awards.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
A further comment said the site had become waterlogged, turning a "once beautiful forest" into a "fly-tipping incident".
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
SpaceX has become a looming threat over the telecommunications sector — and now it’s rearing its head once more.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
She could give Tony uncomplicated affection and attention at a time when nearly every interaction between him and me had become tangled with ever-increasing confusion and fear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
“I think it’s only a matter of time before you become one,” she says.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
The cunning, determined, rhetorically skillful Odysseus, long absent from his kingdom after a devastating war, becomes the devilishly clever Satan, cast down from his original home after the angelic civil war in heaven.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
It forms because the air high above the Pole becomes extremely cold and dense in winter.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
“If you have to do that across multiple brands, then it becomes difficult for one management team to stay focused on that,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
It’s caused by a bacteria called Yersinia pestis that infects fleas and the small mammals that host fleas, and there are actually three types of plague depending on which part of the body becomes infected.
From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2026
Eventually, one of the Japanese soldiers becomes suspicious.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
As he got older, though, work became progressively elusive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
On Friday morning in Durban, 34-year-old Australia batter Nic Maddinson became the latest to experience the stubbornness of the sporting gods.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
“I don’t know how to describe it, but filmmaking became a religion, as opposed to something that I could do. It fused with me.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
If you want to get to know who a famous person really is, you need to find out who they were before they became famous.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Later, it became one of those family stories we all went on telling, but Karli told it best—mimicking the shock on the policeman’s face wonderfully well.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
She has started studying health and social care at college, with ambitions of becoming a nurse, having spent most of her life surrounded by medical staff.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
When we returned to Los Angeles, I dreaded becoming dependent on a car for everything.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
Since becoming a father he finds himself thinking, “Obviously we don’t want to destroy the world, but what do we want to preserve and what kind of world do we want to build?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
MPS has turned things around, becoming Italy's third-largest bank last year after the acquisition of Mediobanca.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
I was marketing after noontime each day for Mrs. Wigginbottom and becoming known for my shrewd bargaining.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
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.
