verb · academic

occur

UK/əˈkɜːr/US/əˈkɝː/o·CCUR

Band 7+task2speaking

to happen or take place

Examples

Most accidents occur during peak traffic hours.

It did not occur to the researchers that the sample was biased.

Periodic shortages occur when demand suddenly increases.

Band 8 sentence

Serious complications rarely occur when the procedure is performed by experienced surgeons.

Collocations

  • occur frequently
  • an occurrence of
  • occur to someone

Word family

occurrence noun

Common mistakes

occurred to me (tense mistake)It occurred to me / It did not occur to me

occuredoccurred

Say it for a higher band

5happen6arise7+occur

Synonyms

happen

take place

Easily confused

happen

Strange things happen at night.

Related words

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In Sublist 3

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