"encounter" meaning in English

See encounter in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ɪnˈkaʊntɚ/ [US], /ɪnˈkaʊntə/ [UK] Audio: en-us-encounter.ogg [US] Forms: encounter [singular], encounters [plural]
Head templates: {{noun}} [POS TABLE]
  1. An encounter is a meeting, usually one that you don't expect. Synonyms: meet
    Sense id: simple-encounter-en-noun-4429IuR9
  2. An encounter is when two people or groups meet to play a game or fight a battle.
    Sense id: simple-encounter-en-noun-cuhNP4wl

Verb

IPA: /ɪnˈkaʊntɚ/ [US], /ɪnˈkaʊntə/ [UK] Audio: en-us-encounter.ogg [US] Forms: encounter [canonical], encounters [third-person, singular], encountered [past], encountered [past, participle], encountering [present, participle]
Head templates: {{verb}} [POS TABLE]
  1. If you encounter problems, difficulties, etc., you experience them.
    Sense id: simple-encounter-en-verb-2Yk~PHoY
  2. If you encounter someone, you meet someone, usually unexpectedly.
    Sense id: simple-encounter-en-verb-YxmUPJSM
  3. If you encounter someone, you meet them to play a game or fight a battle.
    Sense id: simple-encounter-en-verb-KDZ-K~d5
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "encounter",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "encounters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "coun‧ter",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I had a pleasant encounter yesterday: an old friend of mine visited me."
        },
        {
          "text": "My job was really the result of a chance encounter with an old friend, now my boss."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An encounter is a meeting, usually one that you don't expect."
      ],
      "id": "simple-encounter-en-noun-4429IuR9",
      "raw_tags": [
        "countable"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "meet"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I hope there will be no encounter with other soldiers tomorrow."
        },
        {
          "text": "This is the fifth World Cup encounter between these two teams."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An encounter is when two people or groups meet to play a game or fight a battle."
      ],
      "id": "simple-encounter-en-noun-cuhNP4wl",
      "raw_tags": [
        "countable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɪnˈkaʊntɚ/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɪnˈkaʊntə/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-encounter.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "encounter"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "encounter",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "encounters",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "encountered",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "encountered",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "encountering",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "coun‧ter",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "When he did encounter problems, he always knew how to fix them."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you encounter problems, difficulties, etc., you experience them."
      ],
      "id": "simple-encounter-en-verb-2Yk~PHoY",
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "In the store I encountered my teacher."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you encounter someone, you meet someone, usually unexpectedly."
      ],
      "id": "simple-encounter-en-verb-YxmUPJSM",
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "At night the battle ship encountered enemy planes."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you encounter someone, you meet them to play a game or fight a battle."
      ],
      "id": "simple-encounter-en-verb-KDZ-K~d5",
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɪnˈkaʊntɚ/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɪnˈkaʊntə/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-encounter.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "encounter"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "encounter",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "encounters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "coun‧ter",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Countable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I had a pleasant encounter yesterday: an old friend of mine visited me."
        },
        {
          "text": "My job was really the result of a chance encounter with an old friend, now my boss."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An encounter is a meeting, usually one that you don't expect."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "countable"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "meet"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Countable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I hope there will be no encounter with other soldiers tomorrow."
        },
        {
          "text": "This is the fifth World Cup encounter between these two teams."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An encounter is when two people or groups meet to play a game or fight a battle."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "countable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɪnˈkaʊntɚ/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɪnˈkaʊntə/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-encounter.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "encounter"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "encounter",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "encounters",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "encountered",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "encountered",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "encountering",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": "coun‧ter",
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "When he did encounter problems, he always knew how to fix them."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you encounter problems, difficulties, etc., you experience them."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "In the store I encountered my teacher."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you encounter someone, you meet someone, usually unexpectedly."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "At night the battle ship encountered enemy planes."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you encounter someone, you meet them to play a game or fight a battle."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɪnˈkaʊntɚ/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɪnˈkaʊntə/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-encounter.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "encounter"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-12 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (1c4b89b and 9dbd323). 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.