The Meaning of Occur and the Spelling of Its Forms
Occur has three meanings. It means "to be found or met with; appear," as in "a phenomenon that occurs around the world"; it means "to come into existence; happen," as in "an event that occurred on Friday"; and it means "to come to mind," as in "it occurs to me that the word is quite useful."
It's an unusual-looking word, being so small but with two c's up against each other, and then just a simple r at the end. The r is doubled, though, for the past tense: occurred. And the double r continues in the present participle: occurring.
The event is scheduled to occur at noon tomorrow.
No one was ready for what was about to occur.
There's a chance that a similar event will occur in the future.
The disease tends to occur in children under the age of five.
The plant occurs naturally throughout South America.
Recent Examples on the WebGirl’s mother raised concerns The killing occurred just two months after Duran and his ex Mona Clarke settled a custody battle in Broward family court.—Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 30 May 2024 Conduct audits for the last two school years to determine if any similar incidents occurred and take steps to remedy the effects those incidents may have had on students.—Rebecca Noel, Charlotte Observer, 30 May 2024 Though the power in the pair’s tumultuous relationship has historically belonged to Deborah—a woman who is no stranger to forcing hands for her career's sake—a seismic shift occurred this season.—Erin McMullen, TIME, 30 May 2024 Such terrible accidents cannot be allowed to occur, even if this one appeared to be a secondary fire.—The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 29 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for occur
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'occur.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Latin occurrere "to run to meet, confront in a hostile manner, be met, present itself (to the mind)," from oc-, assimilated variant of ob-ob- + currere "to run, roll, move swiftly" — more at current entry 1
from Latin occurrere "to be found or met with, appear," literally, "to run up against," from oc-, ob- "in the way" and currere "to run" — related to current, incur
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