as in encountering
to come upon face-to-face or as if face-to-face
happened upon the hotel manager in the lobby and promptly complained about the room
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for happening (upon)
Verb
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Divers and snorkelers weave through forests of giant kelp towers, encountering famously playful sea lions, neon fish, and even historic shipwrecks.—
Lydia Price,
Travel + Leisure,
19 Feb. 2026 -
Patients have craved a solution after years of encountering lists that are often filled with inaccuracies, most notably whether doctors participate in an insurance plan’s network.—
Bob Herman,
STAT,
19 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Some of us had known each other for a long time, and some of us were just literally meeting.—
Ryan Coleman,
Entertainment Weekly,
26 Feb. 2026
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Sleep scheduling techniques primarily apply heuristics for periodic check‑ins, event‑driven wake-ups, clustering, and time division to stretch lifetime while meeting QoS targets [5][6].—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
26 Feb. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Happening (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/happening%20%28upon%29. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.
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