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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

befriend.

To become a friend of (someone), to make friends with (someone).

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/bɪˈfɹɛnd/Received-Pronunciation/bəˈfɹɛnd/General-American/bi-/General-American
  1. To become a friend of (someone), to make friends with (someone).

    also · figuratively · transitive
  2. To act as a friend to (someone, especially a client) by providing companionship and support; to assist, to help.

    transitive
  3. To benefit or favour (someone or something); also, to advocate or promote (someone or something).

    figuratively · transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épider. Proto-Indo-European *h₁pi Proto-Germanic *bider. Proto-Germanic *bi- Proto-West Germanic *bi- Old English be- Middle English bi- English be- Proto-Indo-European *preyH- Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *priHós Proto-Germanic *frijōną Proto-Germanic *frijōndz Proto-West Germanic *friund Old English frēond Middle English frend English friend English befriend From be- (intensifying prefix) + friend (verb). cognates * Dutch bevrienden (“to befriend”) * German befreunden (“to befriend”) * German Low German befründen (“to befriend”) * Saterland Frisian befrüündje (“to befriend”) * West Frisian befreone (“befriended”)

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.