Word.ws English Dictionary

begotten

/bɪˈɡɒt.ən/

begotten is the past participle of beget.

Meaning of beget

Verb

beget (third-person singular simple present begets, present participle begetting, simple past begot or (archaic) begat, past participle begotten or (rare) begot)

  1. (literary, transitive) To produce or bring forth (a child); to be a parent of; to father or sire.
    • The King intends to beget a child within the next five years.
  2. (transitive) To cause; to produce; to bring forth.
    • Wealth begets wealth; poverty begets poverty.
    Synonyms:
    breed
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To get or obtain.
    • If there bee neuer a Seruant-monſter i' the Fayre, who can helpe it, he ſayes ; nor a neſt of Antiques ? Hee is loth to make Nature afraid in his Playes, like thoſe that beget Tales, Tempeſts, and ſuch like Drolleries, […]1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie, […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot, […], published 1631...
  4. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To happen to; befall.

Adjective

begotten (not comparable)

  1. Brought into being by one's begetter(s).
    • ¶ For God so loued þe world, that he gaue his only begotten Sonne: that whosoeuer beleeueth in him, should not perish, but haue euerlasting life.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 3:16

Words formed from begotten

Words that rhyme with begotten

Questions about begotten

What does begotten mean?
Begotten means brought into being by one's begetter(s).
What is begotten the past participle of?
Begotten is the past participle of beget.
What part of speech is begotten?
Begotten is an adjective.
How do you pronounce begotten?
Begotten is pronounced /bɪˈɡɒt.ən/ (UK).

Words near begotten in the dictionary

  1. begoring
  2. begorra
  3. begorrah
  4. begorry
  5. begot
  6. begotten
  7. begottenness
  8. begottest
  9. begowk
  10. begowked
  11. begowking

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: begotten (page history and authors); beget (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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Cite this entry: “begotten.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/begotten. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.