overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

occupy.

To take or use.

6 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈɒkjʊpaɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɑkjəpaɪ/General-American
  1. To take or use. To fill.

    transitive
    The film occupied three hours of my time.
  2. To take or use. To possess or use the time or capacity of; to engage the service of.

    transitive
    The film occupied me for three hours.
    I occupy myself with gardening for a few hours every day.
  3. To take or use. To fill or hold (an official position or role).

    transitive
    I occupy the post of deputy cat catcher.
  4. To take or use. To hold the attention of.

    transitive
    I occupied her friend while he made his proposal.
  5. To take or use space. To fill space.

    transitive
    The historic mansion occupied two city blocks.
  6. To take or use space. To live or reside in.

    transitive
  7. To take or use space. To have, or to have taken, possession or control of (a territory).

    transitive
  8. To take or use space. To place the theodolite or total station at (a point).

    transitive
  9. To have sexual intercourse with.

    obsolete · transitive
  10. To do business in; to busy oneself with.

    obsolete
  11. To use; to expend; to make use of.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English occupien, occupyen, borrowed from Old French occuper, from Latin occupāre (“to take possession of, seize, occupy, take up, employ”), from ob (“to, on”) + capiō (“to take”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to seize, grab”). Doublet of occupate, now obsolete.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

occupy has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

occupy studiooccupy workshello, occupy

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.