beget
beget Lexical Profile
beget Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To give rise to; to bring about or cause an outcome or condition.
"Historians often observe that economic instability can beget widespread social unrest."
To procreate or father offspring (archaic or literary, especially of a male parent).
"In ancient genealogical chronicles, each patriarch is listed alongside the sons and daughters he begot."
Word Nuance & Usage
In its literal sense of fathering children, 'beget' is largely archaic or restricted to biblical contexts (where the archaic past tense 'begat' frequently appears), whereas in modern formal English it is primarily used figuratively to mean 'to cause or bring about', with the standard past tense 'begot'.
• Rhymes for beget
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English 'begietan', meaning 'to get by effort, find, acquire, or attain', formed from the intensive prefix 'be-' and 'gietan' (to get), later shifting in Middle English toward the sense of procreating or generating.