# occur

/əˈkɝ/ (US) · /əkˈɜː/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/occur
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. to happen

verb · CEFR B1 · Academic

to happen or take place, especially when you are describing a specific event.

For teachers: to take place or happen. This sense is intransitive and often used in formal or academic reporting of events.

- The police are trying to find out exactly when the accident occurred.
- The most significant seismic shifts occurred during the late evening, catching the monitoring team off guard despite their sophisticated equipment.

Usage: Intransitive; does not take a direct object.

### 2. to be found

verb · CEFR B2 · Academic · Technical

to exist or be found in a particular place or situation.

For teachers: to be present or found within a specific context, location, or dataset.

- These rare birds only occur in the deep parts of the rainforest.
- The chemical compound occurs naturally in the bark of several tropical trees, though its concentration varies significantly by season.

Usage: Often used with the preposition 'in'.

### 3. to come to mind

verb · CEFR B2

you use this when an idea or a thought suddenly enters your mind.

For teachers: to come into the mind or suggest itself to a person. Typically used in the construction 'it occurred to [someone] that'.

- It suddenly occurred to me that I had left my keys in the car.
- It had never occurred to the management that the staff might prefer flexible working hours over a traditional salary increase.

Usage: Usually takes the preposition 'to' followed by the person.

## Examples

- The accident occurred late at night.
- Scientists are trying to understand why these earthquakes occur so frequently in this specific region.
- While minor errors often occur during the initial data entry phase, the system is designed to flag any significant discrepancies before the final report is generated.

---

From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.