ENCOUNTERING Synonyms: 56 Similar and Opposite Words

encountering

verb

present participle of encounter

as in confronting

to come upon face-to-face or as if face-to-face quite unexpectedly encountered our next-door neighbor while vacationing in Europe

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in finding

to come upon unexpectedly or by chance we encountered a host of unforeseen problems during the restoration of our 200-year-old house

Synonyms & Similar Words

as in facing

to enter into contest or conflict with the troops encountered bands of guerrilla fighters as they made their way across the desert

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of encountering Heaton recalled encountering a farmer in Uganda while volunteering there. — Angela Andaloro, PEOPLE, 23 June 2026 When encountering areas of fog, visibility will reduce quickly. — Kansas City Star Weather Bot, Kansas City Star, 27 June 2026 Conditions can shift rapidly, even in summer, with climbers encountering ice, rockfall and limited visibility within hours. — James Ward, USA Today, 2 July 2026 Humans deal with these situations using common sense but current AI can freeze when encountering a situation not present in its training data. — New Atlas, 20 June 2026 More users have been encountering this situation as Netflix has gradually required that each profile under a Netflix subscription use a unique email address. — Scharon Harding, ArsTechnica, 26 June 2026 Here, Amer plays a fictional version of himself, a Palestinian refugee who is trying to get legal status while encountering personal and professional roadblocks at every turn. — Maira Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2026 As buyers continue encountering AI slop—intelligent-sounding output that's confidently wrong, outdated or so generic it could have been written for anyone—their trust erodes, friction is introduced and deals stall. — Ray Makela, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026 The fraught subject of the proper disposition of those human remains has taken on a new sensitivity — both for the prehistoric people’s Native American successors in Florida, and for the archaeologists and developers encountering them. — Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 30 June 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for encountering

Verb

Business leaders, policymakers, researchers, and educators are confronting questions as consequential as those faced 250 years ago.

— Ashok N. Srivastava, Fortune, 3 July 2026
Authorities plan to shut down streets, airspace and daily life in Tehran as mourners commemorate the life of Khamenei, who led Iran for decades with an iron fist while confronting the West.

— ABC News, ABC News, 2 July 2026

Definition of confronting

Verb

More than a week after the disaster, search-and-rescue operations remain active, though hopes of finding additional survivors are rapidly fading.

— Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 3 July 2026
The family pursued legal action after finding that their pool was not built according to code, and put the settlement money toward founding a water safety nonprofit, The Zac Foundation.

— Madeline Mitchell, USA Today, 3 July 2026

Definition of finding

Verb

Domestic Shield directs counter-drone resources to locations facing the greatest operational risk.

— Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 7 July 2026
The fundraiser says Dileo, a single father, is now facing the financial burden of bringing his son home to Florida, in addition to funeral, burial and other unexpected expenses.

— Angelique Brenes, PEOPLE, 7 July 2026

Definition of facing

Verb

Their lives gradually shift after meeting No Yeong-ju, an optimistic singing instructor played by Im Ji-eun, whose positive outlook encourages both women to confront their past.

— Hannah Abraham, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
The warning is the second issued by UCSB police since May, when an 18-year-old freshman reported she was raped and strangled after meeting a man at a Sigma Pi fraternity party before returning to her dorm at Tropicana Gardens in Isla Vista.

— Stepheny Price, FOXNews.com, 30 June 2026

Definition of meeting

Verb

But this year, the city is catching a little guff over an apparent oversight.

— Matt Reigle OutKick, FOXNews.com, 4 July 2026
And that job is made all the more difficult when catching for two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, who holds himself and his teammates to very high standards.

— Peter Chawaga, Forbes.com, 4 July 2026

Definition of catching

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encountered

encountering

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“Encountering.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/encountering. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of encountering

verb

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