being

Syllables: be·ing/ˈbiː.ɪŋ//ˈbi.ɪŋ/

being is the present participle and gerund of be.

Noun

being (countable and uncountable, plural beings)

A living creature.
- Minute grew into minute, and still there was no sign of life, nor did the curtain move; but I felt the gaze of the unknown being sinking through and through me, and filling me with a nameless terror, till the perspiration stood in beads upon my brow.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “The Plain of Kôr”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 126
The state or fact of existence, consciousness, or life, or something in such a state.
- Claudius, thou / Wast follower of his fortunes in his being.1608-1634, John Webster (and perhaps Thomas Heywood), Appius and Virginia
- For the service to be considered was not the service of one servant, but of two servants, and even of three servants, and even of an infinity of servants, of whom the first could not out till the second up, nor the second up till the third in, nor the third in till the first out, nor the first out...1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC
That which has actuality (materially or in concept).
One's basic nature, or the qualities thereof; essence or personality.
(obsolete) An abode; a cottage.
- It was a relief to dismiss them [Sir Roger's servants] into little beings within my manor.1712 December 4 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “SUNDAY, November 24, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 544; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume...

be (highly irregular—See conjugation table)

(auxiliary) Used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice.
- The dog was saved by the boy.
Used with present participles of verbs to form the continuous aspect.
- The woman is walking.
Used with to-infinitives of verbs to express intent, obligation, appropriateness, or relative future occurrence.
- I am to leave tomorrow.
Used with past participles of certain intransitive verbs to form the perfect aspect.
- He is finished.
(Caribbean, Ireland, auxiliary, African-American Vernacular) To tend to do, often do; marks the habitual aspect.
- Women be shoppin’! You cannot stop a woman from shoppin’!1996, David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, Tom Shadyac and Steve Oedekerk, screenplay of The Nutty Professor
(with-dummy-subject) To exist.
- There is just one woman in town who can help us.

being

Given that; since.
- ’Tis a hard matter therefore to confine them, being they are so various and many […]., New York Review Books 2001, p.280
Synonyms:

as, because, seeing that

Originated 1250–1300 from Middle English being; see be + -ing.

65 more phrasesFewer phrases

What does being mean?: Being means a living creature.
What is being the present participle and gerund of?: Being is the present participle and gerund of be.
What part of speech is being?: Being can be a noun or a conjunction.
How do you pronounce being?: Being is pronounced /ˈbiː.ɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of being?: The plural of being is beings.

Adapted from Wiktionary: being (page history and authors); be (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-being.wav, en-us-being.ogg.

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