Refine this word faster
Be
Definitions
- 1 Initialism of board-eligible. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, not-comparable
- 1 Abbreviation of Berlin: a state of Germany. abbreviation, alt-of
- 2 Abbreviation of Bengkulu: a province of Indonesia. abbreviation, alt-of
- 3 Initialism of Black English. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 4 Initialism of Buddhist Era. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
"For quotations using this term, see Citations:BE."
- 1 The name of the Cyrillic script letter Б / б
- 2 Initialism of Bachelor of Engineering. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
- 3 a light strong brittle grey toxic bivalent metallic element wordnet
- 4 Initialism of breast expansion. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
- 1 Alternative form of by. Also found in compounds, especially oaths, e.g. begorra. alt-of, alternative, dated, dialectal, possibly
"O ful tru un pertikler akeawnt o... th' greyt Eggshibishun. Be o felley fro Rachde."
- 1 As an auxiliary verb:; Used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice. auxiliary, irregular
"The dog was saved by the boy."
- 2 spend or use time wordnet
- 3 As an auxiliary verb:; Used with present participles of verbs to form the continuous aspect. irregular
"The woman is walking."
- 4 work in a specific place, with a specific subject, or in a specific function wordnet
- 5 As an auxiliary verb:; Used with to-infinitives of verbs to express intent, obligation, appropriateness, or relative future occurrence. formal, irregular
"I am to leave tomorrow."
Show 32 more definitions
- 6 have an existence, be extant wordnet
- 7 As an auxiliary verb:; Used with past participles of certain intransitive verbs to form the perfect aspect. irregular
"He is finished."
- 8 have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun) wordnet
- 9 As an auxiliary verb:; To tend to do, often do; marks the habitual aspect. Caribbean, Ireland, auxiliary, irregular
"1996, David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, Tom Shadyac and Steve Oedekerk, screenplay of The Nutty Professor Women be shoppin’! You cannot stop a woman from shoppin’!"
- 10 have life, be alive wordnet
- 11 As a copulative verb:; To exist. irregular, with-dummy-subject
"There is just one woman in town who can help us."
- 12 be identical to; be someone or something wordnet
- 13 As a copulative verb:; Used to declare the subject and object identical or equivalent. irregular
"Hi, I’m Jim."
- 14 form or compose wordnet
- 15 As a copulative verb:; Used to indicate that a predicate nominal applies to the subject. irregular
"Rex is a dog."
- 16 occupy a certain position or area; be somewhere wordnet
- 17 As a copulative verb:; Used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by an adjective or prepositional phrase. irregular
"The sky is blue."
- 18 be identical or equivalent to wordnet
- 19 As a copulative verb:; Used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by a noun or noun phrase. irregular
"The sky is a deep blue today."
- 20 represent, as of a character on stage wordnet
- 21 As a copulative verb:; To have (a condition, especially a mental or physical disability). colloquial, humorous, irregular
"He’s a little autism."
- 22 be priced at wordnet
- 23 As a copulative verb:; Used to link a subject to a measurement. irregular
"This building is three hundred years old."
- 24 to remain unmolested, undisturbed, or uninterrupted — used only in infinitive form wordnet
- 25 As a copulative verb:; Used to state the age of a subject in years. irregular
"I’m 20 (years old)."
- 26 As a copulative verb:; Used to indicate the time of day. irregular
"It is almost eight (o’clock)."
- 27 As a copulative verb:; Used to indicate passage of time since the occurrence of an event. irregular
"It has been three years since my grandmother died. (similar to "My grandmother died three years ago", but emphasizes the intervening period)"
- 28 As a copulative verb:; Used to link two noun clauses: a day of the week, recurring date, month, or other specific time (on which the event of the main clause took place) and a period of time indicating how long ago that day was. irregular, past, rare, regional
"I saw her Monday was a week: I saw her a week ago last Monday (a week before last Monday)."
- 29 As a copulative verb:; To pass or spend (time). irregular
"and when he compares both sides, he will be some time at a loss to fix any determination."
- 30 As a copulative verb:; To take a period of time. irregular
"Dinner will be ten minutes."
- 31 As a copulative verb:; Used to indicate ambient conditions such as weather, light, noise or air quality. impersonal, irregular, often
"It is hot in Arizona, but it is not usually humid."
- 32 As a copulative verb:; To exist or behave in a certain way. especially, irregular
"When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead."
- 33 As an intransitive lexical verb:; To exist; to have real existence, to be alive. irregular, literary, usually
"The Universe has no explanation: it just is."
- 34 As an intransitive lexical verb:; To remain undisturbed in a certain state or situation. irregular
"Let them be for a few hours."
- 35 As an intransitive lexical verb:; To occupy a place. irregular
"The cup is on the table."
- 36 As an intransitive lexical verb:; To occur, to take place. irregular
"When will the meeting be?"
- 37 As an intransitive lexical verb:; Elliptical form of "be here", "go to and return from" or similar, also extending to certain other senses of "go". irregular
"The postman has been today, but my tickets have still not yet come."
Etymology
From Middle English been (“to be”). further etymology of be and its conjugated forms The various forms have three separate origins, which were mixed together at various times in the history of English. * The forms beginning with b- come from Old English bēon (“to be, become”), from Proto-Germanic *beuną (“to be, exist, come to be, become”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-yé-ti (“to grow, become, come into being, appear”), from the root *bʰuH-. In particular: ** Now-dialectal use of been as an infinitive of be is either from Middle English been (“to be”) or an extension of the past participle. ** Now-obsolete use of been as a plural present tense (meaning "are") is from Middle English been, be (present plural of been (“to be”), with the -n leveled in from the past and subjunctive; compare competing forms aren/are). ** Use of been as a past participle is from Middle English been, ybeen, from Old English ġebēon. * The forms beginning with w- come from the aforementioned Old English bēon, which shared its past tense with the verb wesan, from Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- (“to reside”). * The remaining forms (am, are, is) are also from Old English wesan (“to be”), Proto-West Germanic *wesan, from Proto-Germanic *wesaną, the present tense of which comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₁és-ti, from the root *h₁es-.
A variant of by which goes back to Middle English be (variant of Middle English bi).
Borrowed from Russian бэ (bɛ).
See also for "be"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Want a quick game? Try Word Finder.