occur to
phrasal verb
occurred to; occurring to; occurs to
: to be thought of by (someone)
An idea just occurred to me.
It suddenly occurred to her that there was a simpler way to deal with the problem.
Did it never occur to you to ask for help?
Examples of occur to in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
That Running Fence might not happen never occurred to them.
—
Literary Hub, 7 Nov. 2025
One of those occurred to end the first half which forced the Bears to rush and end up missing a 58-yard field goal.
—Evan Massey, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Oct. 2025
During all those hours, calling search and rescue hadn’t occurred to me.
—Maggie Slepian, Outside, 24 Oct. 2025
My hunch is that many American parents have not yet started paying grandparents simply because the idea never occurred to them.
—Marina Lopes, The Atlantic, 6 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for occur to
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Literary Hub, 7 Nov. 2025
One of those occurred to end the first half which forced the Bears to rush and end up missing a 58-yard field goal.
—Evan Massey, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Oct. 2025
During all those hours, calling search and rescue hadn’t occurred to me.
—Maggie Slepian, Outside, 24 Oct. 2025
My hunch is that many American parents have not yet started paying grandparents simply because the idea never occurred to them.
—Marina Lopes, The Atlantic, 6 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for occur to
Cite this Entry
“Occur to.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/occur%20to. Accessed 10 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share