be

[ UK /bˈiː/ ]
[ US /ˈbi, bi/ ]
VERB
  1. spend or use time
    I may be an hour
  2. work in a specific place, with a specific subject, or in a specific function
    She is our resident philosopher
    He is a herpetologist
  3. be identical or equivalent to
    One dollar equals 1,000 rubles these days!
  4. represent, as of a character on stage
    Derek Jacobi was Hamlet
  5. be priced at
    These shoes cost $100
  6. occupy a certain position or area; be somewhere
    What is behind this behavior?
    The toolshed is in the back
    Where is my umbrella?
  7. happen, occur, take place
    There was a lot of noise in the kitchen
    I lost my wallet; this was during the visit to my parents' house
    There were two hundred people at his funeral
  8. form or compose
    The stone wall was the backdrop for the performance
    This money is my only income
    This sum represents my entire income for a year
    These few men comprise his entire army
    These constitute my entire belonging
    The children made up the chorus
  9. to remain unmolested, undisturbed, or uninterrupted -- used only in infinitive form
    let her be
  10. have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)
    This is not a good answer
    John is rich
  11. have an existence, be extant
    Is there a God?
  12. have life, be alive
    Our great leader is no more
    My grandfather lived until the end of war
  13. be identical to; be someone or something
    The president of the company is John Smith
    This is my house
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How To Use be In A Sentence

  • Liberal democracy is a fraud, a cover for the power of the elite. Times, Sunday Times
  • There were 42 free-kicks, two penalties, four bookings and three players sent off, two of whom had to be escorted from the pitch by police.
  • He described the sequence of events leading up to the robbery.
  • He was a cute little beggar, looked like you as well.
  • When the new foods that came from the Americas - peppers, summer squash and especially tomatoes - took hold in the region, a number of closely related dishes were born, including what we call ratatouille - and a man from La Mancha calls pisto, an Ikarian Greek calls soufiko and a Turk calls turlu. NYT > Home Page
  • It would almost be better to have no backbench bills at all than the current system, which offers a false glimmer of hope. Times, Sunday Times
  • When we see her, we remember that hot July day doing five knots pulling Jess and Jerry on a tube and Russ skippering his first yacht.
  • Richardson, are proprietors of shows, and the berouged, bedraggled creatures who exhibit on the platform outside for their living. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 53, No. 327, January, 1843
  • Some were members of Turkey's elite military class known as "pashas," a title of respect harking back to Ottoman military commanders Monday for allegedly planning to blow up mosques in order to trigger a military takeover and overthrow the WN.com - Photown News
  • Lobefins today have dwindled to the lungfishes and the coelacanths ‘dwindled’ as ‘fish’, that is, but mightily expanded on land: we land vertebrates are aberrant lungfish. THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH
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