occur

[ uh-kur ]

verb (used without object)

, oc·curred, oc·cur·ring.

1. to happen; take place; come to pass:

   When did the accident occur?

   Synonyms: befall

2. to be met with or found; present itself; appear:

   Modest amounts of fructose occur naturally in fruits and vegetables.

   Synonyms: offer, exist, arise

3. to suggest itself in thought; come to mind (usually followed by to ):

   An idea occurred to me.

occur

/ əˈkɜː /

verb

1. to happen; take place; come about
2. to be found or be present; exist
3. 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

Other Words From

• pre·oc·cur verb (used without object) preoccurred preoccurring
• re·oc·cur verb (used without object) reoccurred reoccurring
• un·oc·cur·ring adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of occur¹

First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin occurrere “to run to meet, arrive, meet,” equivalent to oc- oc- + currere “to run”

Word History and Origins

Origin of occur¹

C16: from Latin occurrere to run up to, from ob- to + currere to run

Synonym Study

See happen.

Example Sentences

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said "We do not comment on reports of private meetings that did or did not occur."

From BBC

Most current approaches for predicting crystal structures use physics-based methods that have limitations, including introducing bias and errors or predicting too many crystal forms than actually occur in experiments.

From Science Daily

To answer such a fundamental question, the scientists started by demonstrating that, across all major parrot lineages, yellow and red in feathers correspond to two specific pigments that do not occur in other birds.

From Science Daily

The renaming will occur in early 2025.

From Los Angeles Times

"Despite being told how things would operate in advance, to see the exact opposite occur in some cases, and to see the treatment of our fans by local police using shields and tear gas to do something as simple as rearrange a queue, is so incredibly frustrating," the FSA added.

From BBC

Related Words

• appear
• arise
• crop up
• develop
• ensue
• exist
• follow
• go
• materialize
• result
• show
• take place
• transpire