Word.ws English Dictionary

befind

befind verb: to find; discover.

Verb

befind (third-person singular simple present befinds, present participle befinding, simple past and past participle befound)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To find; discover.
    • It is well that the thinker should give his thoughts to the world, though it must be admitted that wisdom befinds itself sometimes in the reverse of the sage's pronouncement.1898, Maurice Maeterlinck, Wisdom and Destiny, page 4
    • Farther in the height befinds itself […]1966, Johann Melchior Dinglinger, Joachim Menzhausen, At the court of the Great Mogul, page 52
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To invent; contrive.
  3. (obsolete, passive voice) To be found; be.

Forms of befind

third-person singular presentbefinds
present participlebefinding
past participlebefound
pastbefound

Origin of befind

From Middle English befinden, bifinden, equivalent to be- + find. Cognate with Saterland Frisian befiende (“to be located, befind”), Dutch bevinden (“to find”), German befinden (“to be, be located”), Swedish befinna (“to find, be”).

Questions about befind

What does befind mean?
Befind means to find; discover.
What part of speech is befind?
Befind is a verb.
What is the past tense of befind?
The past tense of befind is befound.

Words near befind in the dictionary

  1. befilms
  2. befilth
  3. befilthed
  4. befilthing
  5. befilths
  6. befind
  7. befinding
  8. befinds
  9. befinger
  10. befingered
  11. befingering

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: befind (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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