"began" meaning in English

See began in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /bI'gæn/ Audio: en-us-began.ogg [US] Forms: begin [canonical], begins [third-person, singular], began [past], begun [past, participle], beginning [present, participle]
Head templates: {{verb2|begin|begins|began|begun|beginning}} [POS TABLE]
  1. The past tense of begin.
    Sense id: simple-began-en-verb-3oWE2KR8
     
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "begin",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "begins",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "began",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "begun",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "beginning",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "begin",
        "2": "begins",
        "3": "began",
        "4": "begun",
        "5": "beginning"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb2"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I began to feel uncomfortable when he made fun of my friend."
        },
        {
          "text": "He began his business many years ago."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The past tense of begin."
      ],
      "id": "simple-began-en-verb-3oWE2KR8"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/bI'gæn/"
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/bI\"g{n/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-began.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "began"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "begin",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "begins",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "began",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "begun",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "beginning",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "begin",
        "2": "begins",
        "3": "began",
        "4": "begun",
        "5": "beginning"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb2"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Past tense forms"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I began to feel uncomfortable when he made fun of my friend."
        },
        {
          "text": "He began his business many years ago."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The past tense of begin."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/bI'gæn/"
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/bI\"g{n/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-began.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "began"
}

Download raw JSONL data for began meaning in English (0.8kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-05 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (8c1bb29 and fb63907). 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.

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