Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To come to pass.
- v. To come into being.
- v. To take place or occur by chance.
- v. To come upon something by chance.
- v. To come or go casually; make an appearance.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To occur by chance; occur unexpectedly or unaccountably; in general, to occur; take place.
- To chance; be by chance or unexpectedly: as, he happened to be at home.
- Possibly; perhaps.
- Fortunate; happy; blessed.
Wiktionary
- v. To occur or take place.
- v. To occur unexpectedly, by chance or with a low probability.
- v. To encounter by chance.
- adv. maybe, perhaps.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To come by chance; to come without previous expectation; to fall out.
- v. To take place; to occur.
WordNet 3.0
- v. come to pass
- v. chance to be or do something, without intention or causation
- v. come into being; become reality
- v. happen, occur, or be the case in the course of events or by chance
- v. come upon, as if by accident; meet with
Etymologies
- From Middle English happenen (Wiktionary)
- Middle English happenen, from hap, chance; see hap. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“We Americans show very little care about atrocities that happen *as they happen*, and even less once they are past.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Why the Neglect of Communist Crimes Matters
“Sub-junctive_; which may or may not happen, hence introduced by an _if_, equal to _gif_, _give_, _grant_, _provided it so happen_.”
Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864 Devoted to Literature and National Policy
“What needs to happen is to have consumers write and visit their lawmakers regularly.”
Maryland wine shipping rides a wave of support–and pessimism | Dr Vino's wine blog
“The only thing we will be sure to happen is to have a new president of the electoral commission, he said.”
Voice of America: Guinea Announces 24 October Date for Presidential Run-Off Vote
“What needs to happen is tort reform and portability.”
Matthew Yglesias » Lincoln Slams Mythical Liberal Extremists
“The very last thing I want to happen is to not meet their expectations.”
“Oh, right – tell me that this country wants to revert back to the days of GWB – and the destruction of the constitution = what really needs to happen is to elminate republicans from any elective office – even congressmen/women who possibly aare really republicans in disguise.”
“I cannot think of a more dangerous situation to be allowed to happen is to allow shooting at night!”
Hurteau: Nebraska Deer-Control Bill Favors Frightening Free-For-All
“What maybe needs to happen is to say that our next war is on our sad infrastructure.”
“Now, what does need to happen is to make sure such purchases are not subsidized on the back end.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘happen’.
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Time
Words related to time
time, occurrence, duration, schedule, calendar, period, continuance, event, before, until, since, after and 28 more...
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Verbs
edit, delete, get, take, abide, be, catch, wash, watch, fly, eat, sleep and 33 more...
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broken
unable, to, complete, request, sorry, something, has, gone, terribly, wrong, When, the and 35 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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tree's Words
aphasia, anhedonia, promontory, misandry, amanuensis, asymptote, penultimate, muslin, tundra, calico, kinaesthesia, rutabaga and 209 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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The Jumblies
They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to...sieve, winter, morn, stormy, round, drowned, cried, aloud, button, fig, sea, far and 113 more...
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melange1's Favorite Words
Words for use at any time, any occasion. These words rock.
mabulous, confusticate, scrumdiddlyumptious, happen, plethora, myriad, pencil, harrassment, caulk, stymied, tickle, occasion and 15 more...
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TT3 Lesson 27
cousin, message, urgent, extremely, document, tip, gone for the day, happen, call in, contact, matter, keep fingers crossed and 19 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for happen.
sarra 'That is so' (''appen it is'). Yorkshire dialect. Jun 22, 2009