occasion
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The time of a particular event.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhkayzhuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈkeɪʒən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The time of a particular event
“On the occasion of his 60th birthday.”
A particular happening; an instance or time when something occurred.
A favorable opportunity; a convenient or timely chance.
“There was never an occasion for her to demonstrate her skill.”
A special event or function.
An occurrence or state of affairs which causes some event or reaction; a motive or reason.
“There was no occasion for complaint.”
Something which causes something else; a cause.
verb
transitive
To cause; to produce; to induce
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The time of a particular event
Used this way, occasion is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“On the occasion of his 60th birthday.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “occasion of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: occasion of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Time / particularnoun
“On the occasion of his 60th birthday.”
Favorablenoun
“There was never an occasion for her to demonstrate her skill.”
Occurrencenoun
“There was no occasion for complaint.”
More ways to use occasion
- “On the occasion of his 60th birthday.”noun
- “There was never an occasion for her to demonstrate her skill.”noun
- “There was no occasion for complaint.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Something you have to do.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Sporadically and infrequently.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A formal event performed on a special occasion.
A vaguely specified social event.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- anniversarynoun
- celebrationnoun
- weddingnoun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.