Word.ws English Dictionary

find

/ˈfaɪ̯nd/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈfɑjnd/

find verb: to encounter or discover by accident; to happen upon.

Verb

find (third-person singular simple present finds, present participle finding, simple past found or (dialectal) fand, past participle found or (dialectal) fand or (archaic) founden)

  1. (transitive) To encounter or discover by accident; to happen upon.
    • I found this shell on the beach.
    • She arrived home to find that the house had gone up in flames.
  2. (transitive) To encounter or discover something being searched for; to locate.
    • I found my car keys. They were under the couch.
    • I went looking for you in the bed we share, but tonight I found you not there.
    Synonyms:
    localize, pinpoint
    Antonyms:
    lose, miss
  3. (ditransitive) To locate on behalf of another.
    • I found you a new place to live
  4. (ditransitive) To discover by study or experiment directed to an object or end.
    • Water is found to be a compound substance.
    • The researchers found the two variables to be strongly correlated.
  5. (transitive) To gain, as the object of desire or effort.
    • to find leisure; to find means
    • And in thoſe dayes ſhall men ſeke deeth / and ſhall nott fynde hyt / ſhall deſyre to deye / and deeth ſhall flye frõ them.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Revelacion off Sanct Jhon the Devine ix:[6], folio cccxxix, verso
  6. (transitive) To attain to; to arrive at; to acquire.
    • Looks like he found a new vehicle for himself!
  7. (transitive) To meet with; to receive.
    • The proposal found little support within the government.
    • Among newer procedures, the Robb and Steinberg contrast visualization of cardiac chambers and venous catheterization of the right heart have found the broadest study and application.1951 March, J. H. Lehmann, A. D. Johnson, W. C. Bridges, J. Michel, D. M. Green, “Cardiac Catheterization—A Diagnostic Aid in Congenital Heart Disease”, in Northwest Medicine, volume 50, number 3...
  8. (transitive) To point out.
    • He kept finding faults with my work.
  9. (ditransitive) To decide that, to conclude that, to form the opinion that, to consider.
    • I find your argument unsatisfactory.
    • I found it strange {sleeping - to sleep} in your house last night.
  10. (transitive) To arrive at, as a conclusion; to determine as true; to establish.
    • to find a verdict; to find a true bill (of indictment) against an accused person
    • to find his title with some shows of truth1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  11. (archaic, transitive) To supply; to furnish.
    • to find food for workmen
  12. (archaic, transitive) To provide for
    • He finds his nephew in money.
    • They stand idle in the market-place, not because they have not been hired, but because they do not want to be hired; being able to live like the Lazzaroni of Naples, on "Midshipman's half-pay—nothing a day, and find yourself."1871, Charles Kingsley, “Port of Spain”, in At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies. […], volume I, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 135
Show 3 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (intransitive) To determine or judge.
    • The jury finds for the defendant.
  2. (transitive) To successfully pass to or shoot the ball into.
    • Peters finds Jinkins, who is running down the left wing.
    • Van Persie scored a hat-trick against Wigan on Saturday and should have found the net again after Bendtner found him at the far post but the Dutchman's header rebounded to safety off the crossbar.2011 January 25, Paul Fletcher, “Arsenal 3-0 Ipswich (agg. 3-1)”, in BBC
  3. (intransitive) To discover game.
    • They found at once, and there was a short sharp run, during which Linda and Tony, both in a somewhat showing-off mood, rode side by side over the stone walls.1945, Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love, Penguin, published 2010, page 57

Noun

find (plural finds)

  1. Anything that is found (usually valuable), as objects on an archeological site or a person with talent.
    • One of the most exciting finds made by Chinese archaeologists within the last twenty years are the sites located in Inner Mongolia and Liaoning Province, particularly the Neolithic Hung-shan culture (c. 3500-2500 B.C.E.).2001, Chün-fang Yü, “Feminine Forms of Kuan-yin in Late Imperial China”, in Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokiteśvara, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 409
    • Shepard: How did you get these things to your father?
      Tali: Sometimes I left packages at secure drops in civilized areas. Someone on Pilgrimage would see that it was shipped home.
      Tali: For very valuable finds, I'd signal home, and Father would send a small ship.2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Alarei
    Synonyms:
    discovery, catch
  2. The act of finding.

find meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

find in Hindi

encounter, locate, discover
पाना pānā, मिलना milnā

find in Tamil

கண்டுபிடி, கண்டறி, கண்டுபிடிப்பு

find in Urdu

encounter, locate, discover
ملنا milnā, پانا pānā

find in Bengali

encounter, locate, discover
খোঁজা khō̃ja
act of finding
অন্বেষণ onneśon
More languagesFewer languages
find in Telugu
తీయు tīyu
find in Malayalam
കണ്ടെത്തുക kaṇṭettuka
find in Kannada
ಕಾಣು kāṇu
find in Punjabi
لَبّھݨا labbhṇā, ڈُھوْنڈݨا ḍhūnḍṇā, تَلاش کَرنا talāś karnā
find in Sanskrit
विन्द् vind, विद् vid, विन्दति vindáti, अधिगच्छति adhigacchati
find in Sinhala
සොයා ගන්නවා soyā gannawā
find in Assamese
পা pa
find in Nepali
भेट्नु bheṭnu, पाउनु pāunu
find in Pashto
موندل mundël
find in Tagalog
nahanap, hanapin
find in Arabic
وَجَدَ wajada, لَقِيَ laqiya, عَثَرَ عَلَىٰ ʕaṯara ʕalā, لَقِيَّة laqiyya
find in Malay
cari
find in Indonesian
menemukan
find in Persian
یافتن yâftan, پیدا کردن peydâ kardan, نمایاندن namâyândan
find in Thai
พบ póp, เจอ jəə, หา hǎa
find in Vietnamese
tìm
find in Myanmar
တွေ့ twe.

Examples of find in a sentence

  • It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
  • The kind that have mottoes And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases.1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

All 40 example sentences with find

Synonyms of find

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of find

Forms of find

Verb
third-person singular presentfinds
present participlefinding
pastfound
past participlefound
past (dialectal)fand
past participle (dialectal)fand
past participle (archaic)founden
second-person singular present (archaic)findest
second-person singular past (archaic)foundest
third-person singular present (archaic)findeth
Noun
pluralfinds

Past tense of find: found

Plural of find: finds

Origin of find

From Middle English finden, from Old English findan, from Proto-West Germanic *finþan, from Proto-Germanic *finþaną, a secondary verb from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to go, pass; path bridge”). See also West Frisian fine, Low German finden, Dutch vinden, German finden, Danish finde, Norwegian Bokmål finne, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish finna; also English path, Old Irish étain (“I find”), áitt (“place”), Latin pōns (“bridge”), Ancient Greek πόντος (póntos, “sea”), Old Armenian հուն (hun, “ford”), Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬧𐬙𐬃 (paṇtā̊), Sanskrit पथ (pathá, “path”), Proto-Slavic *pǫtь. For the meaning development compare Proto-Slavic *najьti > Russian найти́ (najtí), akin to Proto-Slavic *jьti > идти́ (idtí); Russian находи́ть (naxodítʹ), нахо́дка (naxódka), akin to ход (xod), ходи́ть (xodítʹ).

Words formed from find

Phrases with find

Words that rhyme with find

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about find

What does find mean?
Find means to encounter or discover by accident; to happen upon.
What is find in Hindi?
Find in Hindi is पाना (pānā), मिलना (milnā). See Find meaning in Hindi.
How do you use find in a sentence?
It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room.
What part of speech is find?
Find can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce find?
Find is pronounced /ˈfɑjnd/ (British).
What is the past tense of find?
The past tense of find is found.

Words near find in the dictionary

  1. Finck
  2. Fincks
  3. finclip
  4. finclipped
  5. finclips
  6. find
  7. find a friendly bush
  8. find a new gear
  9. find another gear
  10. find as you type
  11. find fault

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: find (page history and authors); find (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); తీయు (Telugu) (page history and authors); കണ്ടെത്തുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಕಾಣು (Kannada) (page history and authors); अधिगच्छति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); পা (Assamese) (page history and authors); موندل (Pashto) (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: en-us-find.ogg, En-uk-to find.ogg.

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