occurrence
Americannoun
-
occurrences
plural
-
the action, fact, or instance of occurring.
-
something that happens; event; incident.
We were delayed by several unexpected occurrences.
- Synonyms:
- circumstance
noun
-
something that occurs; a happening; event
-
the act or an instance of occurring
a crime of frequent occurrence
Synonym Usage
See event.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of occurrence
1530–40; < Latin occurrent-, stem of occurrēns (present participle of occurrere “to run up to, run to meet”), from oc- (variant of ob- ; see ob- ( def. )) + currere “to run” + -ence; compare Medieval Latin occurrentia
Explanation
An occurrence is an instance of something or a time when something happens. If you get migraines, the doctor might ask how many occurrences of the headache you have in a month. An occurrence is an instance of something that happens repeatedly. The occurrence of Lyme disease is more frequent in New England than it is in other parts of the country. As soon as authorities see an occurrence of rabies, they send warnings out to people who live in the area. Sometimes though, an occurrence is a single event or an incident. If you and your friend saw a ghost in the cemetery, that would be quite an occurrence!
Vocabulary lists containing occurrence
Make a Run for It: Cur, Curs
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Commonly Misspelled Words, List 4
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
An unusual occurrence with breadth and the stock market just occurred.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
“Based on current knowledge of rabies occurrence in Los Angeles County, it is likely this raccoon was infected with rabies from a bat,” public health officials stated in a news release.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
“The Swan” was not a singular occurrence, then, but part of an era hawking cosmetic improvement, whether surgical or noninvasive, as the key to succeeding at life.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2026
The resident, who did not want to reveal their name, said the groups were not a daily occurrence but had become a familiar sight over the past year.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
One Saturday night, Helmuth is eating dinner with Mutti and Hugo—a rare occurrence since Helmuth has moved in with his grandparents.
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
The president said he had "directed the Nigerian Air Force to immediately commence a thorough investigation into the cause of the crash to prevent future occurrences".
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
It’s not merely that security breaches exposing the personal information of up to hundreds of millions of people have become almost daily occurrences.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
The prince sympathised with residents who might be "anxious" about extreme weather events he said were no longer "one in 50-year" occurrences but instead seemed to be happening every year.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
Not exactly encouraging is how these rogue occurrences happened at companies that should have had the best handle on guardrails, Crawford said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
There is no general answer to the question of which processes dominate, the outside ones or the inside ones; the rare but violent events, or the common and inconspicuous occurrences.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
