Befind

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To find; discover. archaic, transitive

    "It is well that the thinker should give his thoughts to the world, though it must be admitted that wisdom befinds itself sometimes in the reverse of the sage's pronouncement."

  2. 2
    To invent; contrive. obsolete, transitive
  3. 3
    To be found; be. obsolete

Synonyms

All synonyms
arielbansheebrowniedwarfelffairy

Example

More examples

"It is well that the thinker should give his thoughts to the world, though it must be admitted that wisdom befinds itself sometimes in the reverse of the sage's pronouncement."

Etymology

From Middle English befinden, bifinden, equivalent to be- + find. Cognate with Saterland Frisian befiende (“to be located, befind”), Dutch bevinden (“to find”), German befinden (“to be, be located”), Swedish befinna (“to find, be”).

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