Befalling

adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A happening; occurrence; chance; event.
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of befall form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
  1. 1
    Appertaining; appropriate; fitting. archaic

    "Bountie & largeſſe is befalling for kynges."

Synonyms

All synonyms
accidentaffaircasualtychancecontingencyepisode

Example

More examples

"A disaster is befalling the country."

Etymology

From Middle English bifallinge, equivalent to befall + -ing. Cognate with Dutch bevalling (“delivery, labour”), Swedish befallning (“command, behest, charge”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.