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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

beggar.

A person who begs.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbɛɡɚ/General-American/ˈbɛɡə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A person who begs.

  2. A person suffering from extreme poverty.

  3. A mean or wretched person; a scoundrel.

    colloquial · endearing · sometimes
    What does that silly beggar think he's doing?
  4. A minced oath for bugger.

    UK
  5. the last placer in Tycoon

Where this word comes from

From Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar (“beggar”), from Middle English beggen (“to beg”), equivalent to beg + -ar. Alternative etymology derives Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar from Old French begart, originally a member of the Beghards, a lay brotherhood of mendicants in the Low Countries, from Middle Dutch beggaert (“mendicant”), with pejorative suffix (see -ard); the order is said to be named after the priest Lambert le Bègue of Liège (French for “Lambert the Stammerer”).

verb/ˈbɛɡɚ/General-American/ˈbɛɡə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To make a beggar of someone; impoverish.

    transitive
  2. To exhaust the resources of; to outdo or go beyond.

    figuratively · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar (“beggar”), from Middle English beggen (“to beg”), equivalent to beg + -ar. Alternative etymology derives Middle English beggere, beggare, beggar from Old French begart, originally a member of the Beghards, a lay brotherhood of mendicants in the Low Countries, from Middle Dutch beggaert (“mendicant”), with pejorative suffix (see -ard); the order is said to be named after the priest Lambert le Bègue of Liège (French for “Lambert the Stammerer”).

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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.