belong
/bɪˈlɒŋ
/verb [no object]
1 (belong to) Be the property of: the vehicle did not belong to him...
- She has been informed of this and we will endeavour to release any such property that belongs to her.
- He stressed that while the rectory is the vicar's home, the property belongs to the diocese, which made the final decision to carry out the work.
- The third type of site belongs to a property manager with an inventory of homes in a individual destination.
Synonyms
be owned by, be the property of, be the possession of, be in the ownership of, be held by, be at the disposal of, be in the hands of
1.1Be due to: most of the credit belongs to Paul...
- That credit belongs to the early Puritan families.
- Some of the credit belongs to the new structure we've put in place at the Department of Homeland Security.
- All the merit belongs to the players and the coach.
1.2(Of a contest or period of time) be dominated by: the race belonged completely to Fogarty...
- The second round belongs to Jones as he dominates the ring, forcing Filho to accept more punishment than is healthy for any human body.
- Perhaps some will think that in this, like other contests, victory belongs to the party that is left alone in the arena.
- The second period of this game belonged to one man, Noel Delaney.
2 (belong to) Be a member of (a particular group or organization): he belonged to the local cricket club...
- Many families in the area had members who belonged to both organizations.
- Most of the organization's members belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
- But nobody calls it a front for any political organisation, though it has many members who belong to political organisations.
Synonyms
be a member of, be in, be included in, be affiliated to, be allied to, be associated with, be connected to, be linked to, be an adherent of
2.1 [usually with adverbial of place] (Of a person) have an affinity for a specified place or situation: she is a stranger, and doesn’t belong here you and me, we belong together (as noun belonging) we feel a real sense of belonging...
- As we have already seen, despite their races, regardless of their cultural differences, Mehuru and Frances do belong together.
- You are right, we don't belong together, we may love each other, but we aren't in love with one another.
- If you don't belong to a group, then you don't belong here.
Synonyms
fit in, be suited to, have a rightful place, have a home, be part of
informal go, click
affiliation, acceptance, association, attachment, connection, union, integration, closeness;
rapport, fellow feeling, fellowship, kinship, partnership
2.2Have the right personal or social qualities to be a member of a particular group: young people are generally very anxious to belong...
- So it's usually up to technology project leaders wanting a seat at the CEO's table to convince management committee members that they belong.
- Society has an obligation to ensure that all its members are able to belong.
- We want to point to the urgent need to examine the nature and effects of our very limited repertoire of ways of making sense of being, belonging and social order.
3 [with adverbial of place] (Of a thing) be rightly placed in a specified position: he put the rifle back in the locker where it belonged such statements do not belong in a modern student textbook...
- You may be tempted to lay the blame where it rightly belongs, on others.
- Have a look at what they actually agreed to and what has been done and then place the blame where it actually belongs.
- Man Ray was experimenting with new techniques and compositions and many of the Surrealists used photography to signal that their art belonged firmly in the modern, mechanical world.
3.1Be rightly assigned to a specified category: these compounds belong to a class of chemical mediators called kairomones...
- Still others may belong to poorly known metazoan taxa that may or may not belong in any known phyla, and others are probably too poorly preserved to be informative.
- So, the Tulip Revolution belongs in the same category as the Orange Revolution, the Rose Revolution, etc.
- Quicksilver is set in the late seventeenth century, and belongs in a category of novels which some would call historical, or picaresque, or possible just an adventure story.
Synonyms
have a place, be located, be situated, be found, lie, stand, be included, be classed, be classified, be categorized
Derivatives
belongingness
- But the riots wrenched my sense of belongingness from me and since then I have become a wanderer,’ he says visibly in pain.
- This model also highlights the importance of the classroom social ecology in promoting a student's sense of belongingness and, thus, motivation to engage in appropriate classroom behavior.
- A person with healthy boundaries is able to have a solid sense of self and feelings of belongingness to one's family as well as to others outside the family.
Origin
Middle English: from be- (as an intensifier) + the archaic verb long 'belong', based on Old English gelang 'at hand, together with'.