- past participle of beget.
begotten
Americanverb
verb
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Something is begotten when it's been generated by procreation — in other words, it's been fathered. A somewhat old fashioned adjective, begotten is the past participle of the verb beget, which means to father or produce as offspring. You might recognize this word from John 3:16, one of the most popular and most often quoted bible verses: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Vocabulary lists containing begotten
Christmas Carol Vocab: A Lyrical Lexicon
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Words for Carolers
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Oedipus at Colonus
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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.
But the rat itself was surely born here, in the Valley, begotten of that species of teenagers caroming through the malls in flocks and packs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 20, 2024
“The creative inspiration people got from cheese boards has begotten creative inspiration for a lot of things,” she says.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 25, 2020
Recent decades have seen the museum organised by way of a stately procession, in which art movements and -isms were shown to have begotten other movements and -isms.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 16, 2019
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., sent a detailed list of questions to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh about his financial history this week, and those questions have now begotten further questions.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2018
All the children born or begotten in that year, and there were many, were fair to see and strong, and most of them had a rich golden hair that had before been rare among hobbits.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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.
