find

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   accept and make use of one's personality, abilities, and situation

   My son went to Berkeley to find himself

2. 2
   verb

   receive a specified treatment (abstract)

   These aspects of civilization do not find expression or receive an interpretation

3. 3
   verb

   establish after a calculation, investigation, experiment, survey, or study

   find the product of two numbers

4. 4
   verb

   decide on and make a declaration about

   find someone guilty

5. 5
   verb

   come upon after searching

   find the location of something that was missed or lost

6. 6
   verb

   To locate

   I found this shell on the beach.

7. 7
   verb

   To discover by study or experiment directed to an object or end.

   Water is found to be a compound substance.

8. 8
   verb

   To gain, as the object of desire or effort.

   to find leisure; to find means

Etymology

From Middle English finden, from Old English findan, from Proto-West Germanic *finþan, from Proto-Germanic *finþaną, a secondary verb from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to go, pass; path bridge”). See also West Frisian fine, Low German finden, Dutch vinden, German finden, Danish finde, Norwegian Bokmål finne, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish finna; also English path, Old Irish étain (“I find”), áitt (“place”), Latin pōns (“bridge”), Ancient Greek πόντος (póntos, “sea”), Old Armenian հուն (hun, “ford”), Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬧𐬙𐬃 (paṇtā̊), Sanskrit पथ (pathá, “path”), Proto-Slavic *pǫtь. For the meaning develop…