occur to

phrasal verb

occurred to; occurring to; occurs to
: to be thought of by (someone)
An idea just occurred to me.
It suddenly occurred to her that there was a simpler way to deal with the problem.
Did it never occur to you to ask for help?

Examples of occur to in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
This is already occurring to some degree; Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's outreach to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz has been rebuffed, and inter-agency groups formed during the previous administration are now stalled. Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Apr. 2025 Because firearms suddenly increase in availability and access in the lead up to hunting season, a similar opportunity occurs to study what happens with firearm incidents—both hunting and non-hunting related. Time, 16 Apr. 2025 The interchangeability of all marshmallows created by humankind never occurred to the people who wrote the VAT rules. Robert Goulder, Forbes.com, 14 Apr. 2025 That question occurred to legal scholars in recent weeks as the Police Department searched for two people who spray-painted a swastika on a Tesla parked on the Lower East Side. James Barron, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for occur to

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Occur to.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/occur%20to. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!