Beget

verb

verb ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To produce or bring forth (a child); to be a parent of; to father or sire. literary, transitive

    "The King intends to beget a child within the next five years."

  2. 2
    make (offspring) by reproduction wordnet
  3. 3
    To cause; to produce; to bring forth. literary, transitive

    "Wealth begets wealth; poverty begets poverty."

  4. 4
    To get or obtain. literary, obsolete, transitive

    "If there bee neuer a Seruant-monſter i' the Fayre, who can helpe it, he ſayes ; nor a neſt of Antiques ? Hee is loth to make Nature afraid in his Playes, like thoſe that beget Tales, Tempeſts, and ſuch like Drolleries, […]"

  5. 5
    To happen to; befall. UK, dialectal, literary, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
authorbe fruitfulbe productivebearbegbirth

Example

More examples

"If Adam and Eve were the first and up to that point only people, who did beget their grandchildren?"

Etymology

From Middle English begeten [influenced by Old Norse geta ("to get, to guess")], from Old English beġietan (“to get”), from Proto-Germanic *bigetaną (“to find, seize”), equivalent to be- + get. Cognate with Old Saxon bigetan (“to find, seize”), Old High German bigezan (“to gain, achieve, win, procure”).

Related phrases

lies beget more lies

More for "beget"

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