Word.ws English Dictionary

befalleth

befalleth is the third-person singular simple present indicative of befall.

Meaning of befall

Verb

befall (third-person singular simple present befalls, present participle befalling, simple past befell, past participle befallen)

  1. (transitive) To fall upon; fall all over; overtake.
    • At dusk an unusual calm befalls the wetlands.
  2. (intransitive) To happen.
    • It befell in the days of Uther Pendragon [...] that there was a mighty duke in Cornwall that held war against him long time.1485 July, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter I, in William Caxton, editor, Le Morte D’Arthur, volume 1
    Synonyms:
    come to pass
  3. (transitive) To happen to.
    • Temptation befell me.
  4. (intransitive, obsolete) To fall.
    • With a thought I tooke for Maudline
      & a cruse of cockle pottage.
      with a thing thus tall, skie blesse you all:
      I befell into this dotage.c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)

See all 5 meanings of befall

Origin of befalleth

From befall + -eth.

Questions about befalleth

What is befalleth the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Befalleth is the third-person singular simple present indicative of befall.

Words near befalleth in the dictionary

  1. befal
  2. befalen
  3. befaling
  4. befall
  5. befallen
  6. befalleth
  7. befalling
  8. befallings
  9. befalls
  10. befals
  11. befamilied

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: befalleth (page history and authors); befall (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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