happens

/ˈhæpənz/

happens is the third-person singular simple present indicative of happen.

Meaning of happen

happen (third-person singular simple present happens, present participle happening, simple past and past participle happened)

(intransitive) To occur or take place.
- Let me tell you how it happened.
Synonyms:

come to pass
(archaic, transitive) To happen to; to befall.
- 'By my soul! I believe something bad has happened me,' he muttered, and popped up his window, and looked out, half dreaming over the church-yard on the park beyond […]1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
(impersonal, intransitive, with infinitive) To do or occur by chance or unexpectedly.
- Take an umbrella in case it happens to rain.
To encounter by chance.
- Unexpectedly, in a nook close by the farmhouse, he happened upon a spot where the vintage had actually commenced.1860, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 30, in The Marble Faun
(informal) To become popular or trendy.

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

What is happens the third-person singular simple present indicative of?: Happens is the third-person singular simple present indicative of happen.
How do you pronounce happens?: Happens is pronounced /ˈhæpənz/.

Adapted from Wiktionary: happens (page history and authors); happen (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-happens.wav, en-us-happens.ogg.

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