beget
verb
bē-\
bē-
\
also begat\ bi-ˈgat ,
bē-
\;
begotten\ bi-ˈgä-tᵊn ,
bē-
\
or begot;
begetting
Definition of beget
1 : to procreate as the father : sire He died without begetting an heir.
2 : to produce especially as an effect or outgrowth Violence only begets more violence.
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Synonyms for beget
Synonyms
breed, bring, bring about, bring on, catalyze, cause, create, do, draw on, effect, effectuate, engender, generate, induce, invoke, make, occasion, produce, prompt, result (in), spawn, translate (into), work, yield
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Examples of beget in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Moreover, the next generation of rats emulated their own mothers’ behavior: High-licking moms begat high-licking children. — Judith Newman, New York Times, "Adversity Needn’t Thwart or Define You. Here’s How to Cope.," 6 July 2018 Even if 2 Tone’s songs about intolerance begetting violence are sadly more relevant than ever, Wakeling would like to think of himself as an optimist. — Kenneth Partridge, Billboard, "The English Beat Talk First New Album In 36 Years & Feeling Like 'Ska-stradamus'," 23 May 2018 When the era of the smartphone hit, Tencent proved adept at competing against itself: A contest among several internal teams begat WeChat—and the group responsible for QQ did not win. — Adam Lashinsky, Fortune, "Alibaba v. Tencent: The Battle for Supremacy in China," 21 June 2018 Big moves begat title-hungry Suns Tom Chambers will admit it. — Scott Bordow, azcentral, "Phoenix Suns – and fans – reach silver anniversary of love affair with 1993 Western Conference champions," 16 June 2018 And that question begets a bunch more, reminding us just how bizarre this mess is. — Charles Curtis, For The Win, "7 reasons the Kawhi Leonard mess is the most bizarre NBA situation," 6 July 2018 Success also begets more opportunity in the restaurant world. — Justin Phillips, SFChronicle.com, "For Dominique Crenn, critical success leads to culinary freedom," 29 June 2018 More recently, the Trump administration is begetting a surge of new usages. — Roy Greene, BostonGlobe.com, "Lexicon: What’s behind a ‘grand bargain’?," 27 June 2018 Success in show business has begotten success in the hospitality business. — Joanne Kaufman, New York Times, "Chazz Palminteri’s Bedford Tale," 3 Apr. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'beget.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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From the Editors at Merriam-Webster
11 Words from the Bible
11 Words from the Bible
Good words from the Good Book
Dictionary Entries near beget
Statistics for beget
Last Updated
20 Oct 2018
Look-up Popularity
Time Traveler for beget
The first known use of beget was in the 13th century
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More Definitions for beget
beget
verb
English Language Learners Definition of beget
: to cause (something) to happen or exist
: to become the father of (someone)
See the full definition for beget in the English Language Learners Dictionary
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