Happen
adv, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 To occur or take place. intransitive
"Let me tell you how it happened."
- 2 come to pass wordnet
- 3 To happen to; to befall. archaic, transitive
"'By my soul! I believe something bad has happened me,' he muttered, and popped up his window, and looked out, half dreaming over the church-yard on the park beyond […]"
- 4 come into being; become reality wordnet
- 5 To do or occur by chance or unexpectedly. impersonal, intransitive, with-infinitive
"Take an umbrella in case it happens to rain."
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 happen, occur, or be the case in the course of events or by chance wordnet
- 7 To encounter by chance.
"Unexpectedly, in a nook close by the farmhouse, he happened upon a spot where the vintage had actually commenced."
- 8 come upon, as if by accident; meet with wordnet
- 9 To become popular or trendy. informal
- 10 chance to be or do something, without intention or causation wordnet
- 1 maybe, perhaps. dialectal, not-comparable, obsolete
"Yeah, well happen if he'd gone quietly, she wouldn't have needed to show him who's in charge."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Let's consider the worst that could happen."
Etymology
From Middle English happenen, hapnen, augmented from Middle English happen (“to come to pass, happen”), perhaps from Old English hæppan (“to move accidentally, slip”) and/or from Old Norse *happa, *heppa, from Proto-Germanic *hampijaną (“to fit in, be fitting”). Equivalent to hap (“a chance, occurrence, byfall”) + -en (verbal suffix).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.