Be crossword clue

The most likely answers for the crossword clue “Be” are LAST, LIVE or COST, with 4 letters. Below are 109 answers from 3 to 13 letters, best match first in each length, then what each top answer means and how to tell them apart.

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The best answers, explained

OUT 3 letters · verb

be made known; be disclosed or revealed “The truth will out”

LAST 4 letters · adjective

not to be altered or undone “the arbiter will have the last say”

EXIST 5 letters · verb

have an existence, be extant

FOLLOW 6 letters · verb

work in a specific place, with a specific subject, or in a specific function

SURVIVE 7 letters · verb

continue to live and avoid dying “These superstitions survive in the backwaters of America”

COMPRISE 8 letters · verb

form or compose “These few men comprise his entire army”

REPRESENT 9 letters · verb

form or compose “This sum represents my entire income for a year”

CONSTITUTE 10 letters · verb

form or compose “These constitute my entire belonging”

PARTICIPATE 11 letters · verb

become a participant; be involved in

CONGRATULATE 12 letters · verb

be proud of

PROCRASTINATE 13 letters · verb

postpone doing what one should be doing “He did not want to write the letter and procrastinated for days”

Telling them apart

With 4 squares, LAST, LIVE, COST, LIKE, KNOW and BACK all fit. The third letter settles most of it: S → LAST, COST · V → LIVE · K → LIKE · O → KNOW · C → BACK. Fill in that crossing answer first.

With 5 squares, EXIST, EQUAL, TREND, THINK, STILL and POINT all fit. The second letter tells them all apart: X → EXIST · Q → EQUAL · R → TREND · H → THINK · T → STILL · O → POINT. Fill in that crossing answer first.

With 3 squares, OUT, TOP, PAY, AIR, BUY and ACT all fit. The first letter settles most of it: O → OUT · T → TOP · P → PAY · A → AIR, ACT · B → BUY. Fill in that crossing answer first.

Other forms of this clue

Clues often use another form of the word, and the answer then takes the same form: “bed” wants an answer that ends the same way.

What “be” means

• verb: have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)
• verb: be identical to; be someone or something
• verb: occupy a certain position or area; be somewhere (“What is behind this behavior?”)
• verb: have an existence, be extant

A clue usually points at one of these senses, so the right answer is the one that matches the sense the puzzle means: check it against the crossing words.

About these answers

We match the clue against our own thesaurus and dictionary (Open English WordNet): words that mean the same as BE, and words whose definition is BE. We don't copy answers from newspaper puzzles, so a clue that leans on trivia or wordplay may need the crossing letters instead.