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.
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The crash occurred when the woman heading eastbound on South Brookville Drive near Hall Meadow Road drove onto the sidewalk on a curve and struck a tree, causing the vehicle to overturn and ejecting her, according to San Diego police.—Gary Warth, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Jan. 2025 Hypothyroidism, or underactive thyroid, occurs when the thyroid gland doesn't produce enough hormones.—Merve Ceylan, Health, 25 Jan. 2025 The injury occurred during the Bills' divisional-round win over the Baltimore Ravens, where Rapp was forced to leave the field after being evaluated in the medical tent and carted off.—Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 25 Jan. 2025 The fatal encounter occurred when Forest Hill officers responded to a stabbing call on June 9, 2021, in a Quik Trip parking lot at 6549 Wichita St.
Officers found a woman, 34-year-old Kiyana Hall, with stab wounds.—Emerson Clarridge, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 25 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for occur
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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