"began" meaning in English

See began in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /bɪˈɡæn/ [Received-Pronunciation, UK], /bɪˈɡæn/ [General-American, US] Audio: en-us-began.ogg
Rhymes: -æn Head templates: {{head|en|verb form}} began
  1. simple past of begin Tags: form-of, past Form of: begin
    Sense id: en-began-en-verb-whx2yg4b Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 50 50
  2. (obsolete or colloquial) past participle of begin Tags: colloquial, form-of, obsolete, participle, past Form of: begin
    Sense id: en-began-en-verb-27-3SwlR Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 50 50
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: beganst

Alternative forms

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      "_dis1": "0 0",
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "categories": [
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          "_dis": "50 50",
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          "parents": [],
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          "ref": "1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume IV, London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC, page 285:",
          "text": "He had no sooner been free from the horror and remorse attending the first few days of Louisa’s accident, no sooner begun to feel himself alive again, than he had began to feel himself, though alive, not at liberty.",
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      ],
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      ],
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        "US"
      ]
    },
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    "Rhymes:English/æn/2 syllables"
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      ],
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  "sounds": [
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    },
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      "ipa": "/bɪˈɡæn/",
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    },
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/En-us-began.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æn"
    }
  ],
  "word": "began"
}

Download raw JSONL data for began meaning in English (1.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-02-19 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-02-01 using wiktextract (f492ef9 and 59dc20b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.