Word.ws English Dictionary

beheld

/bɪˈhɛld/

beheld is the simple past and past participle of behold.

Meaning of behold

Verb

behold (third-person singular simple present beholds, present participle beholding, simple past beheld, past participle beheld or (rare) beholden)

  1. (transitive) To look at or see (someone or something), especially appreciatively; to descry, to look upon.
    • There's not the ſmalleſt orbe [in the sky] vvhich thou beholdſt, / But in his motion like an Angell ſings, / Still quiring to the young eide Cherubins; / Such harmony is in immortall ſoules, / But vvhilſt this muddy veſture of decay [i.e., the human body] / Doth groſſely cloſe in it, vve cannot...c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act...
    Synonyms:
    clock, look, geek, kool, regard, squizz, take a butcher's, take a dekko, take a gander, vada
  2. (transitive) To contemplate (someone or something).
  3. (intransitive) To look.
    • Lo and behold.

See all 5 meanings of behold

Words formed from beheld

Words that rhyme with beheld

8 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about beheld

What is beheld the simple past and past participle of?
Beheld is the simple past and past participle of behold.
How do you pronounce beheld?
Beheld is pronounced /bɪˈhɛld/.

Words near beheld in the dictionary

  1. behedge
  2. behedged
  3. behedges
  4. behedging
  5. Beheira
  6. beheld
  7. beheldest
  8. beheldst
  9. Beheler
  10. Behelers
  11. behell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beheld (page history and authors); behold (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-beheld.wav.

Cite this entry: “beheld.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beheld. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.