Word.ws English Dictionary

happener

happener noun: one who participates in a happening.

Noun

happener (plural happeners)

  1. (dated) One who participates in a happening.
  2. A person who makes things happen.
    • Goodparley says, 'O no and in deed he aint hes bettern clevver hes a mover hes a happener. […]'1998, Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker, page 118
    • How does (to take an extreme example) me saying to myself that somebody deserves what happens give any support to the happener?1998 November 2, “hate crimes”, in soc.singles.moderated (Usenet)
  3. A person to whom things happen.
    • "No way! He's not one of these people that do things. There's two kinds of people—the doers and the happeners. He's a happener. You know, things happen to him instead."1984, Rex Burns, Strip Search: A Gabe Wager Mystery, page 23
  4. (often) An event that is expected to happen; a plan that is likely to succeed.
    • The planned access via Netizen appears not to be a happener.1999 November 21, “AGP Zero Tolerance Policy?”, in alt.gothic.pretentions (Usenet)
    • It's a happener. All systems are go.2000 November 1, “Lord save me ...”, in alt.gothic.pretentions (Usenet)

Examples of happener in a sentence

  • Just as we who believe in God know that there can be no creation without a Creator, we also know that whenever something happens, there is always a happener.2009, Jan Doke, Broken Jar, page 167:
  • If that's not a happener, try to get a temporary passport.2003 November 23, “Photo id for flying between the UK and Ireland”, in soc.culture.irish (Usenet):

Forms of happener

pluralhappeners

Origin of happener

From happen + -er.

Questions about happener

What does happener mean?
Happener means one who participates in a happening.
How do you use happener in a sentence?
Just as we who believe in God know that there can be no creation without a Creator, we also know that whenever something happens, there is always a happener.
What part of speech is happener?
Happener is a noun.
What is the plural of happener?
The plural of happener is happeners.

Words near happener in the dictionary

  1. happened across
  2. happened along
  3. happened by
  4. happened on
  5. happened upon
  6. happener
  7. happeners
  8. happenest
  9. happeneth
  10. happenin'
  11. happening

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: happener (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: “happener.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/happener. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.