Word.ws English Dictionary

encountering

encountering is the present participle and gerund of encounter.

Meaning of encounter

Verb

encounter (third-person singular simple present encounters, present participle encountering, simple past and past participle encountered)

  1. (transitive) To meet (someone) or find (something), especially unexpectedly.
    • It fits Ioues ſonne / VVraſtle vvith Lyons, and to tugge vvith Beares, / Grapple vvith Dragons, and incounter VVhales.1613, Thomas Heywood, The Silver Age, […], London: […] Nicholas Okes, and are to be sold by Beniamin Lightfoote […], →OCLC, Act III, signature G, recto
    Synonyms:
    cross paths
  2. (transitive) To confront (someone or something) face to face.
  3. (intransitive, rare) To meet one another.
    • […] yet when the brother and the sister had encountered, according to the set appointment, none of these impassionedments had been repeated.1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities
  4. (intransitive) To engage in conflict, as with an enemy.
    • Three armies encountered at Waterloo.
  5. (India, euphemistic, transitive) To kill or execute someone extrajudicially.
    • Speaking to the media, Reddy said, "He (Accused in 6-year-old rape and murder case) should be encountered. We will nab the accused and will encounter him. We will stand by the victim's family. We console them and will provide aid to the family. We will encounter him (the accused)."2021 September 15, “Telangana Minister says, rapist of six-year-old will be nabbed and killed in encounter”, in Catch News, retrieved 25 Feb 2023

See all 11 meanings of encounter

Noun

encountering (plural encounterings)

  1. An encounter; a meeting.
    • This is still a species of reflection because it thematizes encounterings and things-as-encountered, even if they do not occur in the mental life of the person reflectively observing them.2010, Hans Rainer Sepp, Lester E. Embree, Handbook of Phenomenological Aesthetics, page 218

Adjective

encountering (comparative more encountering, superlative most encountering)

  1. (obsolete) Fit for an encounter or battle.
    • Let vs put on our meet incountering mindes,
      And in deteſting ſuch a diueliſh Thiefe,
      In loue of honor and defence of right
      Be arm’d againſt the hate of ſuch a foe,
      Whether from earth, or hell, or heauen he grow.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...

Forms of encountering

Noun
pluralencounterings
Adjective
comparativemore encountering
superlativemost encountering

Questions about encountering

What does encountering mean?
Encountering means an encounter; a meeting.
What is encountering the present participle and gerund of?
Encountering is the present participle and gerund of encounter.
What part of speech is encountering?
Encountering can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of encountering?
The plural of encountering is encounterings.

Words near encountering in the dictionary

  1. encountered
  2. encounterer
  3. encounterers
  4. encounterest
  5. encountereth
  6. encountering
  7. encounterings
  8. encounters
  9. encountre
  10. encountres
  11. encountrynge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: encountering (page history and authors); encounter (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: “encountering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/encountering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.