behold
Americanverb (used with object)
interjection
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
beholdsimple
-
beholdssimple
-
have beheldperfect
-
has beheldperfect
-
am beholdingprogressive
-
are beholdingprogressive
-
is beholdingprogressive
-
have been beholdingperfect progressive
-
has been beholdingperfect progressive
Past
-
beheldsimple
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had beheldperfect
-
was beholdingprogressive
-
were beholdingprogressive
-
had been beholdingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of behold
First recorded before 900; Middle English beholden, Old English behaldan “to keep”; see be-, hold 1
Explanation
To behold is to see. You could behold the changing sky as the sun sets. It’s old-fashioned and fancy, so magicians like to use it, as in “Behold! I shall pull a rabbit out of my hat!” Have you ever heard "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"? That can help you remember that to behold is to see something and to hold it in your attention. To behold is to look intensely — it’s much more than a glance. A good example of beholding is when you take the time to check out something special like that beautiful sunset, or a bunny hopping out of a hat and handing out candy.
Vocabulary lists containing behold
"Frankenstein"
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Awkward
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"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 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:
As we reach peak jellyfish season in Scotland, should we see them as a sight to behold or a reason to run?
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
A living being is also endowed with theoretical knowledge—as in the Greek term theorein, meaning to behold, receive and contemplate ultimate reality as beauty, gift and mystery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
Societies across the world valued gold as a symbol of divinity, immortality, and authority; its rarity made it a special privilege to behold and possess.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
“So low and behold, this is going to be a really good business for us,” Zinsner added, according to a transcript.
From MarketWatch ● May 11, 2026
What a marvelous sight it was to behold Mr. Myles' furrowed black face inspecting his smooth-skinned young, just arrived in the world he'd shortly leave.
From "Seedfolks" by Paul Fleischman
“For the listener, who listens in the snow, / And, nothing himself, beholds / Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
This experience is reciprocal: the religious believer beholds the deity and is beheld by the deity in turn.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022
“Whenever there is no desire, one beholds the mystery,” Lao Tzu wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2020
Two-thirds into “Drifts” the narrator realizes she is pregnant, and as she beholds her “exquisitely tender and changing body” her diction stoops slightly into the hackneyed.
From New York Times ● May 19, 2020
For what each one separately does, unconscious of what even his companion is doing, he from afar knows, and almost beholds, understanding from his centre the concerted and sure results of their united action.
From The Catholic World; Volume I, Issues 1-6 A Monthly Eclectic Magazine by Rameur, E.
At least, it did until very recently, when we fully beheld the wretched manifestations of Meta’s desperate A.I. push.
From Slate ● Apr. 25, 2025
As a kid growing up with showbiz connections in New York City, Lenny Kravitz had already beheld some of music’s most thrilling live acts by the time he was 10 or 11.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2025
She hiked uphill from her riverside worksite and beheld a vista of sheer mountain slopes unbroken by rivers or streams.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 1, 2024
When we first beheld our most important Wolf-Rayet target, a star designated WR 104, on a computer monitor, it was a shimmering spiral that resembled a weirdly distorted Christmas bauble.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 18, 2023
He had never beheld such a great, appalling stillness before.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
There is a particular thrill in beholding a portrait as old and as lifelike as Isidora’s, just over a foot in height and 6 inches wide.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
“The Times posed the question, ‘Will Swift ever voluntarily step away from the spotlight?’ as if beholding a woman in full flow and power invariably summoned the fantasy of her involuntary removal from the scene.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2025
In the context of the story, the narrator is describing his descent into insanity after beholding the most grotesque, ungodly beast in existence.
From Salon ● Mar. 18, 2025
Still, while beholding this inspiring mobilization, a basic question kept nagging at me: How do you even get tens of thousands of people in one Zoom call, let alone 100,000?
From Slate ● Aug. 2, 2024
“He looks as skinny as a rail,” Regina said upon beholding her famous son, and she almost burst into tears.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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.
