Encountered I Encounter Verb ɪnˈkaʊntə(R ɪnˈkaʊntər Number Difficulties

• we encountered a number of difficulties in the first week.
• the report details the problems encountered by families in this situation.
• i had never encountered such resistance before.
• she was the most remarkable woman he had ever encountered.

encounter

Verb Forms

1. to experience something, especially something unpleasant or difficult, while you are trying to do something else
• SYNONYM meet (8)
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/meet_1#meet_sng_7
• We encountered a number of difficulties in the first week.
• The report details the problems encountered by families in this situation.
• I had never encountered such resistance before.
2. to meet somebody, or discover or experience something, especially somebody/something new, unusual or unexpected
• SYNONYM come across
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/come_1
• She was the most remarkable woman he had ever encountered.
• Plant scientists first encountered the phenomenon in the 1930s.

Extra Examples

• an idea I first encountered when I was in the army
• Researchers at the isolated Arctic outpost encounter a creature from outer space.
• Walruses were commonly encountered in the Shetland Islands until quite recently.

Word Origin

• Middle English (in the senses ‘meet as an adversary’ and ‘a meeting of adversaries’; formerly also as incounter): from Old French encontrer (verb), encontre (noun), based on Latin in- ‘in’ + contra ‘against’.