being

• beeing (archaic)
• beïng (rare)

Originated 1250–1300 from Middle English being; see be + -ing.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbiːɪŋ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbiɪŋ/, /ˈbiŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːɪŋ, -ɪŋ
• Hyphenation: be‧ing

being

1. present participle of be

being (countable and uncountable, plural beings)

1. A living creature.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “The Plain of Kôr”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, OCLC 1167497017, page 126:

     Minute grew into minute, and still there was no sign of life, nor did the curtain move; but I felt the gaze of the unknown being sinking through and through me, and filling me with a nameless terror, till the perspiration stood in beads upon my brow.

2. The state or fact of existence, consciousness, or life, or something in such a state.
   • 1608-1634, John Webster (and perhaps Thomas Heywood), Appius and Virginia

     Claudius, thou / Wast follower of his fortunes in his being.

   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, Olympia Press:

     For the service to be considered was not the service of one servant, but of two servants, and even of three servants, and even of an infinity of servants, of whom the first could not out till the second up, nor the second up till the third in, nor the third in till the first out, nor the first out till the third in, nor the third in till the second up, nor the second up till the first out, every going, every being, every coming consisting with a being and a coming, a coming and a going, a going and a being, nay with all the beings and all the comings, with all the comings and all the goings, with all the goings and all the beings, of all the servants that had ever served Mr. Knott, of all the servants that ever would serve Mr. Knott.

3. (philosophy) That which has actuality (materially or in concept).
4. (philosophy) One's basic nature, or the qualities thereof; essence or personality.
5. (obsolete) An abode; a cottage.
   • 1712 December 5 (Gregorian calendar)​, Richard Steele, “MONDAY, November 24, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 544; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume VI, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, OCLC 191120697:

     It was a relief to dismiss them [Sir Roger's servants] into little beings within my manor.

• (a living creature): See also Thesaurus:creature
• (the state or fact of existence): See also Thesaurus:existence

being

1. Given that; since.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970:

     , New York Review Books 2001, p.280:

     ’Tis a hard matter therefore to confine them, being they are so various and many […].

• as, because, seeing that; see also Thesaurus:because

• being that

• “being”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• “being”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "being" in the Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary (Beta Version), K Dictionaries limited, 2000-2006.
• "being" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.

• Bengi, begin, binge

being f (genitive singular beinge, plural beingean)

1. bench, form