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.
And Merhige has gone a bit mainstream for those of us who treasure his 1991 Begotten as a great phantasmagoric weirdie: black and white, no dialogue and plenty creepy--just like Nosferatu.
From Time Magazine Archive
Begotten by the electronics revolution, the thoroughly modern media room comprises an eye-and ear-boggling assemblage of spectacle and sound.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was thus that His Divine nature was revealed and enabled the Apostle St. John to testify, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father."
From The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia by Miller, William James
Begotten by the father and conceived by the friend, in a valid sense the child would be a production of all three and, according to this plan of hers, hers to raise.
From An Apostate: Nawin of Thais by Sills, Steven (Steven David Justin)
Likewise the Holy Ghost is called the "Spirit of adoption" in so far as we receive from Him the likeness of the natural Son, Who is the Begotten Wisdom.
From Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint
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.
