occurrence

/əˈkʌɹ.əns/

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Also seen as: occurrences

Sense 1

Meaning · English

An actual instance when a situation occurs; an event or happening.

Noun

Examples

Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of fo

Usage example from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01)

Sources & notes

Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01 via kaikki.org).

Sense 2

Meaning · English

The lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs or predicates that change in or over time.

Noun

Examples

The time interval of an occurrence—a temporal instantiation—is a single occasion. However, a series of such occasions can fall within a certain time interval; in this case we may represent the occurrence as a single situation (cf. I ran off and on for an hour, I ran and ran for an hour, I would run

Usage example from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01)

Sources & notes

Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01 via kaikki.org).

Common questions

What does “occurrence” mean?

An actual instance when a situation occurs; an event or happening.

Is “occurrence” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.