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 WebWhat's more, there's another phenomenon known as cold water shock which occurs when the skin suddenly hits cold water, says Dr. Amna Husain.—Hannah Nwoko, Parents, 17 July 2024 But the new study offers insight into why the symptoms may be occurring.—Jennifer Chesak, Verywell Health, 17 July 2024 But there will still be a population of patients who need insulin, particularly people with type 1 diabetes whose bodies don’t produce any naturally occurring insulin.—Elaine Chen, STAT, 17 July 2024 Another common ingredient is taurine, a building block of proteins that occurs naturally in the human body and actually has the effect of tamping down the activity of certain nerve cells.—Keren Landman, Vox, 17 July 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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