own
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, or belonging to oneself or itself (usually used after a possessive to emphasize the idea of ownership, interest, or relation conveyed by the possessive).
He spent only his own money.
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(used as an intensifier to indicate oneself as the sole agent of some activity or action, preceded by a possessive).
He insists on being his own doctor.
verb (used with object)
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owns,
present (3rd person singular)
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owned,
past participle, past
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owning
present participle
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to have or hold as one's own; possess.
They own several homes.
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to acknowledge or admit.
to own a fault.
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to acknowledge as one's own; recognize as having full claim, authority, power, dominion, etc..
He owned his child before the entire assembly. They owned the king as their lord.
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to totally defeat, gain control over, or dominate in a competition.
I totally owned the last two levels of the game.
He owned the season from beginning to end and took the world title.
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to take over a (a computer system, program, or computer) without authorization.
The network has been owned by a hacker.
verb (used without object)
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owns,
present (3rd person singular)
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owned,
past participle, past
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owning
present participle
idioms
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get one's own back, to get revenge and thereby a sense of personal satisfaction, as for a slight or a previous setback; get even with somebody or something.
He saw the award as a way of getting his own back for all the snubs by his colleagues.
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of one's own, belonging to oneself.
She had never had a room of her own.
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come into one's own,
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to take possession of that which is due or owed one.
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to receive the recognition that one's abilities merit.
She finally came into her own as a sculptor of the first magnitude.
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on one's own,
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by dint of one's own efforts, resources, or sense of responsibility; independently.
Because she spoke the language, she got around the country very well on her own.
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living or functioning without dependence on others; independent.
My son's been on his own for several years.
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hold one's own,
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to maintain one's position or condition.
The stock market seems to be holding its own these days.
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to be equal to the opposition.
He can hold his own in any fight.
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determiner
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(intensifier)
John's own idea
your own mother
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( as pronoun )
I'll use my own
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on behalf of oneself or in relation to oneself
he is his own worst enemy
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to become fulfilled
she really came into her own when she got divorced
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to receive what is due to one
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informal to have revenge
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to maintain one's situation or position, esp in spite of opposition or difficulty
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without help
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by oneself; alone
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verb
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(tr) to have as one's possession
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to confess or admit; acknowledge
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rare (tr; takes a clause as object) to concede
I own that you are right
Synonym Usage
See have.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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ownsimple
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ownssimple
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have ownedperfect
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has ownedperfect
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am owningprogressive
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are owningprogressive
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is owningprogressive
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have been owningperfect progressive
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has been owningperfect progressive
Past
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ownedsimple
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had ownedperfect
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was owningprogressive
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were owningprogressive
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had been owningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of own
First recorded before 900; (adjective) Middle English owen, Old English āgen (cognate with German eigen, Old Norse eigenn ), originally the past participle of āgan “to possess” ( see owe); (verb) Middle English ownen, Old English āgnian, āhnian, derivative of āgen
Explanation
If you own something, it belongs to you. You can use the verb own to describe possession of any kind of property, ranging from a saucepan to a fancy mansion. If something can be bought, it can be owned. You wouldn’t say that you own people or intangible objects. But you might own a car, for example, and if you’re lucky, you might own a lot of really cool shoes. Own can also be an adjective describing something that belongs to a particular person, like your own bedroom, or your own mind. If you admit to something, you "own up to it," admitting the responsibility belongs to you.
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:
“She has her own history here, performing in West Hollywood and on the Sunset Strip early in her career. It’s an honor to welcome her back.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
In a statement to the BBC, Google said: "We understand the concerns and have fallen short of our own high standards in this instance."
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
The result was Lima Quant, whose own mathematical algorithms work out ways to overcome such an antenna.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Customers can either download the model to their own servers, or access it via Mistral's infrastructure, including in "our European sovereign region where data stays under EU jurisdiction to ensure data remains under their control".
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
She also spends a lot of time reading on her own.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
The market-leading chip designer owns roughly 10% of both CoreWeave, which went public last year, and Netherlands-based Nebius.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
The Finnish state has also increased its stake and now owns around 12% of the company.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Neither representatives for Dean nor Universal Music Group, which owns Capitol Records, immediately responded on Monday to requests for comment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
Over in Wyoming, Perry owns a log cabin as a vacation home, which he snapped up in 2005.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
“They know their duties to the family and they act accordingly. In America, no one owns anything, and certainly not another person.”
From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat
She’s also planning to explore plush Thai food in honor of Grandma’s Thai Kitchen, the Van Nuys restaurant her mother owned and operated for years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
In others, ICE has purchased facilities owned and operated by private companies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
Levi’s, which was privately owned from 1985 to 2019, is clawing its way back.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
Gillespie Sells said the recordings took place in the Horsham garden building owned by the Jeremiah brothers' parents.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
Cornwall Capital owned credit default swaps on twenty crappy CDOs, but each was crappy in its own special way, and so it was hard to get a read on exactly where they stood.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Grant Samms thought he would have been out of his rented apartment in Rockville, Md., and owning a home by age 30.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
For more than a decade, Paramount has been the smallest of the major media companies, owning CBS, Comedy Central, BET, Nickelodeon and the Melrose Avenue studio.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
Instead of owning the blunder, Schmitt doubled down.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2026
It is illegal to use a privately-owned e-scooter on public property, although owning an e-scooter is not illegal.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
Olanna visualized his poor houseboys’ wood boxes incongruously full of lace, houseboys she was sure did not get paid much every month, owning cast-off caftans and agbadas they could never wear.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
