Occurrence

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˈkʌɹ.əns/

Definitions

1. An event or instance of something happening or taking place
2. A happening or event that can be observed or registered in a given context
3. A particular event or incident that takes place at a certain time or place ; the appearance or presence of something in a specific location or situation

Etymology: The Latin verb "occurrere" meant "to run to meet" or "to run against," built from "ob" ("toward, against") and "currere" ("to run"). That sense of meeting someone or something head-on is still visible in the word's earliest uses, which were less about events happening and more about things falling in the way of one another. Medieval Latin developed "occurrentia" from this verb, and it passed into Middle French as "occurrence." The word then took on the sense of something that comes up or befalls a person, the way an encounter "runs into" you. English borrowed it from French, and "occurrence" settled into its present meaning of an event or instance of something taking place. The modern sense is essentially the older image of running into something, now stripped down to the plain idea of an incident happening.

Synonyms: event, happening, incident, appearance, manifestation

Antonyms: absence, nonoccurrence, disappearance, neglect, omission