occur
Americanverb (used without object)
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occurs,
present (3rd person singular)
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occurred,
past participle, past
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occurring
present participle
verb
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to happen; take place; come about
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to be found or be present; exist
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(foll by to) to be realized or thought of (by); suggest itself (to)
Usage
It is usually regarded as incorrect to talk of pre-arranged events occurring or happening : the wedding took place (not occurred or happened ) in the afternoon
Synonym Usage
See happen.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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occursimple
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occurssimple
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have occurredperfect
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has occurredperfect
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am occurringprogressive
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are occurringprogressive
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is occurringprogressive
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have been occurringperfect progressive
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has been occurringperfect progressive
Past
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occurredsimple
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had occurredperfect
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was occurringprogressive
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were occurringprogressive
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had been occurringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of occur
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin occurrere “to run to meet, arrive, meet,” equivalent to oc- oc- + currere “to run”
Explanation
Use the verb occur when an event or a thought happens, like when it occurs to you that you've left home without your umbrella. Maybe you didn't hear the forecast that showers would occur this afternoon. The verb occur comes from the Latin, occurrere, “to meet” or “to present itself.” When something occurs, it comes into being, like a thought that seems to present itself from out of the blue, like when it suddenly occurs to you that you forgot to ask your guests if they'd like a cup of tea, or that it would never occur to your Mother that some people spend a small fortune on handbags. Events can also occur, meaning "take place," like a meeting that will occur tomorrow.
Vocabulary lists containing occur
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Make a Run for It: Cur, Curs
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Common Five-letter Words for Wordle, List 4
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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:
All of these behaviors occur on a spectrum, and not all are at play in every estrangement, Scharp says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
Earthquakes are rare in Panama and usually occur in the western Chiriqui province, bordering Costa Rica.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
Equally, periods of a meandering jet stream and cold winter weather often occur without significant changes in the polar vortex.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Short gamma-ray bursts, or short GRBs, are believed to occur when two compact objects, such as neutron stars, spiral toward one another before colliding and merging.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
Why did it occur in Sapiens DNA rather than in that of Neanderthals?
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
Estrangement typically occurs on a continuum—and parents don’t always recognize the signs, says Kristina Scharp, a communication professor at Rutgers University who studies the issue.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
El Nino, which occurs approximately every two to seven years, raises surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean and causes global changes in winds and rainfall.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
There are also psychological and behavioral reasons why incessant checking of your portfolio occurs — and why it can be counterproductive.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
When such a collision occurs, the quark and Z boson should fly away from each other in opposite directions.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
Inference learning occurs conceptually, where the student is able to identify, create, and improvise with musical materials already learned.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
The company has settled several lawsuits resulting from collisions that occurred on autopilot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
The extended X-ray activity was energetic, but it occurred at wavelengths that conventional gamma-ray instruments would have struggled to detect.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
The order gives the Treasury five days to decide whether a qualifying event has occurred.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
She had been going to the shop at the service station for ice-cream when the blast occurred.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
Then another, related thought occurred to her: What would it be like to see Miss Charlotte Mortimer again?
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
The quake was registered as occurring at a depth of just 12km.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
In 1969, moments before the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing, an onboard computer raised an alarm, signalling an error was occurring.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
While industrial trans fats are strongly associated with heart disease, the naturally occurring forms found in dairy did not appear to carry the same risk.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
Nardi found that these broader stretches of unusually warm water can continue for weeks or even months, with the marine heatwave occurring somewhere within that longer period.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
When they ceased the bombardments, however, the emissions continued in the same pattern as one would expect from a naturally occurring radioactive isotope.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
