Belongs

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /bɪˈlɒŋz/

Definitions

1. To be owned or possessed by a person or entity ; to be correctly situated, appropriate, or accepted in a certain place or context
2. To exist as the property of someone ; to fit suitably or be rightly part of a specific environment or category
3. To be the rightful possession of an individual or group ; to be fitting or rightly associated with a particular setting or social group

Etymology: The verb "belong" is built from two old English pieces. The prefix "be-" (a intensifying or directing element found in many verbs) joins "long", from Old English "langian", meaning "to pertain to" or "to suit". So at root, to belong to something is to be fitting or suitable for it, and the sense of ownership grew out of that idea of pertaining. The Old English verb itself has a close cousin in the Germanic languages. Dutch "belangen" means "to concern", and German "belangen" can mean "to sue" or "to concern", so the same root runs through several neighbours of English with a range of senses from relevance to legal action. The Middle English form "belongen" arrived as the word we use today. Far from its Atlantic home, the same pattern appears in Pacific creoles. Tok Pisin "bilong" and Bislama "blong" both use the same form to mean "of" or "belonging to", showing how the idea of possession was carried by this one word across very different languages.

Synonyms: is part of, is a member of, pertains to, is associated with, fits in

Antonyms: is excluded from, disassociates from, detaches from, removes from, dissociates