Occur meaning

ə-kûr
occurred occurring occurs
See word origin
Frequency:
To take place; come about.
verb
12
3
To be found; exist.

Fish occur in most waters.

verb
7
3
To present itself; come to mind.

An idea occurred to him.

verb
5
5
To come to mind.

The idea never occurred to me.

verb
4
5
To occur is to happen or to be found.

An example of occur is when a car crash happens at 2:00.

An example of occur is to find a shark in a specific area of the ocean.

verb
3
2
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To be found to exist or appear.

Copper deposits occur in the region.

verb
3
3
To take place; happen.
verb
2
2
To happen or take place.

The liftoff will occur in exactly twelve seconds.

verb
2
2
To present or offer itself.

I will write if the opportunity occurs.

verb
2
2
(impersonal) To come or be presented to the mind; to suggest itself.
verb
1
1
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(sciences) To be present or found.

The chemical monofluoroacetate occurs in all parts of Dichapetalum cymosum, and is responsible for its toxic effects.

verb
1
1

Origin of occur

  • Latin occurrere ob- toward ob– currere to run kers- in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Originally "meet, meet in argument", from Middle French occurrer, from Latin occurrō (“run to meet, run against, befall, present itself") from prefix ob- (“against") + verb currō (“run, hurry, move").

    From Wiktionary

Occur Sentence Examples

  • Silver, gold, lead and copper ores occur in many localities.

  • I hope it will not occur to her to count the hairs of her head.

  • Did it ever occur to you to ask what I thought about this?

  • Cold dry winds, often of great violence, occur in the Rhone valley (the Mistral), in Istria, and Dalmatia (the Bora), and in the western Caucasus.

  • You see houses a hundred years old standing in areas where tornadoes occur a number of times a year.

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Words near occur in the Dictionary