Other forms: became, becoming, becomes
To become something is to turn into it over time. A student becomes a doctor, water becomes ice, a small argument becomes a family row. It is the ordinary verb for change of state, and it is irregular: become, became, become — the past participle is the same as the base, which catches people out.
It takes an adjective or a noun, never a preposition: he became angry, she became a teacher. What it will not take is a straight object — you cannot become something to somebody. Two near-relations are worth separating. Get is the informal version and works with adjectives only: get angry, get tired, not get a doctor. And there is a second, formal sense of become meaning to suit — that colour becomes you, behaviour unbecoming an officer — which sounds antique now but is still in the fixed phrases.
1verbbecomeTo begin to be something, or to change into it.~65%
“She became a teacher after ten years in an office.”
2verbstateTo begin to be in a state.~33%
“It became clear that nobody had read the letter.”
3verbuseIn formal or older use, to suit somebody.~2%
“That kind of remark does not become you.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 15 sentences found in the wild and placed 15 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
become is a way of changing.
Old English becuman meant to arrive or to happen — to come to a place, or to come about. Modern German bekommen still means to receive. English narrowed it to arrival at a state rather than a place, which is why becoming a doctor is, in the oldest sense of the word, getting there.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʷem-
Proto-Germanic
*bikwemaną — to come around, come about, come across, come by
Old English
becuman — to come (to), approach, arrive, enter, meet with, fall in with; happen, befall; befit
Middle English
becomen
English, today
become
A compound of the sources of be- + come. From Middle English becomen, bicumen, from Old English becuman (“to come (to), approach, arrive, enter, meet with, fall in with; happen, befall; befit”), from Proto-Germanic bikwemaną (“to come around, come about, come across, come by”), equivalent to be + come. Cognate with Scots becum (“to come, arrive, reach a destination”), frr bekommen, bykommen (“to come by, obtain, receive”), West Frisian bikomme (“to come by, obtain, receive”), Dutch bekomen (“to come by, obtain, receive”), German bekommen (“to get, receive, obtain”), Swedish bekomma (“to receive, concern”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (“to come upon one, befall”). Sense of "befit, suit" due to influence from cweme, icweme, see queem. Displaced Old English weorþan.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA