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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

behove.

To befit, to suit.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/bɪˈhəʊv/Received-Pronunciation/biˈhoʊv/General-American
  1. To befit, to suit.

    formal · transitive
  2. To be necessary for (someone).

    formal · transitive
  3. To be in the best interest of; to benefit.

    formal · transitive
  4. To be needful, meet or becoming.

    formal · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English behoven, bihoven (“to be necessary, requisite; to be compelled or required (to do something)”), from Old English behōfian (“to need; to be necessary”), from Proto-Germanic *bihōfōną (“to benefit, behove, need”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grab, seize”). The word is cognate with Old Frisian bihōvia (“to need”), Middle Low German behôven (“to need”) and Old Saxon *bihōvōn, Dutch behoeven (“to need”), obsolete German behufen (cf. Behuf), Danish behøve (“to need”), Norwegian behøve (“to need”), Swedish behöva (“to have use for, to need”).

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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.