Supervene
verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To follow (something) closely, either as a consequence or in contrast. intransitive
"The disease was regarded as pneumonia so far advanced that suppuration seemed to have supervened; bleeding, blisters, expectorants, and cathartics diminished the symptoms; the pulse continued frequent, hard, full, but always regular."
- 2 take place as an additional or unexpected development wordnet
- 3 To supersede.
- 4 To be dependent on an earlier event.
- 5 To be dependent on something else for existence, truth, or instantiation.
"For instance, an idiosyncratic necessitist might claim that even if a river were not spatiotemporally located, it would still be ugly or beautiful in ways that do not supervene on anything else."
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- 6 To occur as an interruption or change to an existing situation.
"The best work was after Bishops Stortford, as we attained 55 m.p.h. after Stansted, and were going well up the short bank when the Elsenham permanent way check supervened."
Example
More examples"After a while, at the second bottle perhaps, cheerfulness will supervene, then mirth and garrulity, ending, as the night closes round, with wordy contention and a general brawl."
Etymology
From Latin supervenīre (“come over or upon, overtake”), from super (“above”) + veniō (“come”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.