behold
UK/bɪˈhəʊld//bɪˈhoʊld/
behold verb: to look at or see (someone or something), especially appreciatively; to descry, to look upon.
Verb
behold (third-person singular simple present beholds, present participle beholding, simple past beheld, past participle beheld or (rare) beholden)
- 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...
- […] Alaeddin ate and drank and was cheered and after he had rested and had recovered spirits he cried, "Ah, O my mother, I have a sore grievance against thee for leaving me to that accursed wight who strave to compass my destruction and designed to take my life. Know that I beheld Death with mine...1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Night 532”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a...
- To contemplate (someone or something).
- To look.
- Lo and behold.
Interjection
behold meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
behold in Urdu
- دیکھنا, غور کرنا
behold in Bengali
- দেখা, দর্শন করা, অবলোকন করা
behold in Malayalam
- ദർശിക്കുക, നിരീക്ഷിക്കുക
behold in Kannada
- ನೋಡು, ಕಾಣು, ಅವಲೋಕಿಸು, ಆಲೋಕಿಸು, ವೀಕ್ಷಿಸು, ಗಮನಿಸು
More languagesFewer languages
- behold in Sanskrit
- पश्यति paśyati
- behold in Arabic
- هُوَذَا huwaḏā, هَا hā
- behold in Indonesian
- lihat, tatap
- behold in Persian
- نگریستن negaristan
Examples of behold in a sentence
- And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.
- Come, come, truly see what mortal man behold, the mother of beauty to them all bestole.
- What I beheld before me, I thought, was the very eidolon of the storm.
Synonyms of behold
Forms of behold
| third-person singular present | beholds |
|---|---|
| present participle | beholding |
| past | beheld |
| past participle | beheld |
| past participle (rare) | beholden |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | beholdest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | beheldst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | beholdeth |
Origin of behold
From Middle English biholden, from Old English behealdan (“to hold, possess, preserve, belong, keep, observe, look at, take care, beware, be cautious, restrain, act, behave”), from Proto-West Germanic *bihaldan (“to hold with, keep”), equivalent to be- + hold. Cognate with Saterland Frisian behoolde (“to keep”), Dutch behouden (“to keep, restrain, preserve”), German behalten (“to keep, restrain, remember”), Danish and Norwegian beholde (“to keep”) and Swedish behålla (“to keep”).
Words formed from behold
Phrases with behold
Words that rhyme with behold
Questions about behold
- What does behold mean?
- Behold means to look at or see (someone or something), especially appreciatively; to descry, to look upon.
- What is behold in Urdu?
- Behold in Urdu is دیکھنا, غور کرنا. See Behold meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is behold?
- Behold can be a verb or an interjection.
- How do you pronounce behold?
- Behold is pronounced /bɪˈhəʊld/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of behold?
- The past tense of behold is beheld.
Words near behold in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: behold (page history and authors); behold (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); behold (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); behold (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); behold (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-behold.ogg.
Cite this entry: “behold.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/behold. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.