English
own
Pronunciation Etymology 1

From Middle English owen, aȝen, from Old English āgen, originally the past participle of āgan; from Proto-West Germanic *aigan, from Proto-Germanic *aiganaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ-.

Cognate with Scots ain, Saterland Frisian oain, Dutch -, German - and Norwegian Nynorsk eigen, Norwegian Bokmål - and Swedish egen, Icelandic eigin. Originally past participle of the verb at hand in English owe.

Also cognate with Sanskrit ईश्वर.

Adjective

own (not comparable)

  1. Belonging to; possessed; acquired; proper to; property of; titled to; held in one's name; under/using the name of. Often marks a possessive determiner as reflexive, referring back to the subject of the clause or sentence.
  2. Not shared.
    When we move into the new house, the kids will each have their own bedroom.
  3. (obsolete) Peculiar, domestic.
  4. (obsolete) Not foreign.
Translations Etymology 2

A back-formation from owner, owning and own. Compare Old English āgnian, Dutch eigenen, German eignen, Swedish ägna.

Verb

own (owns, present participle owning; simple past and past participle owned)

  1. (transitive) To have rightful possession of (property, goods or capital); to have legal title to; to acquire a property or asset.
    I own this car.
  2. (transitive) To have recognized political sovereignty over a place, territory, as distinct from the ordinary connotation of property ownership.
    The United States owns Point Roberts by the terms of the Treaty of Oregon.
  3. (transitive) To defeat or embarrass; to overwhelm.
    I will own my enemies.
    If he wins, he will own you.
  4. (transitive) To virtually or figuratively enslave.
  5. (online gaming, slang) To defeat, dominate, or be above, also spelled pwn.
  6. (transitive, computing, slang) To illicitly obtain superuser or root access to a computer system, thereby having access to all of the user files on that system; pwn.
  7. (intransitive, slang) To be very good.
  8. (intransitive) To admit, concede, grant, allow, acknowledge, confess; not to deny.
  9. (transitive) To admit; concede; acknowledge.
  10. (transitive) To proudly acknowledge; to not be ashamed or embarrassed of.
  11. (transitive) To take responsibility for.
  12. (transitive) To recognise; acknowledge.
    to own one as a son
  13. (transitive) To claim as one's own.
  14. (intransitive, UK dialectal) To confess.
Synonyms Antonyms Translations Translations Noun

own (plural owns)

  1. (internet slang) A crushing insult.


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