behold

A living being is also endowed with theoretical knowledge—as in the Greek term theorein, meaning to behold, receive and contemplate ultimate reality as beauty, gift and mystery.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026

The Hutchinson Himalayas are a site to behold — a mile-long museum of municipal neglect.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2026

Societies across the world valued gold as a symbol of divinity, immortality, and authority; its rarity made it a special privilege to behold and possess.

From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026

The charge into chips by investors has been something to behold.

From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026

In this city of splendors, Dany had expected the House of the Undying Ones to be the most splendid of all, but she emerged from her palanquin to behold a grey and ancient ruin.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

Arriving at the high point of the journey, elevation-wise, Ms. Kessler beholds the Cruz de Ferro, an iron cross regarded as an important source of spiritual uplift.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026

And in the making of “Sincerely,” which beholds her most revealing lyrics yet, authenticity was key.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2025

This experience is reciprocal: the religious believer beholds the deity and is beheld by the deity in turn.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 15, 2022

In the aria, Sara, Duchess of Nottingham, is hiding her tears from everyone but the audience as she beholds in the tragic tale of the Fair Rosamund a reflection of her own lovelorn grief.

From Washington Post ● May 6, 2021

But God beholds the man's heart, and not his possessions.

From The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of ?lfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Volume I. by Aelfric, Abbot of Eynsham

At least, it did until very recently, when we fully beheld the wretched manifestations of Meta’s desperate A.I. push.

From Slate ● Apr. 25, 2025

He and countless others who had tuned in via social media beheld the flames with awe as they silhouetted a seemingly doomed ski lift terminal.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2024

She hiked uphill from her riverside worksite and beheld a vista of sheer mountain slopes unbroken by rivers or streams.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 1, 2024

When we first beheld our most important Wolf-Rayet target, a star designated WR 104, on a computer monitor, it was a shimmering spiral that resembled a weirdly distorted Christmas bauble.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 18, 2023

I blinked more than a few times, hardly trusting what my eyes beheld before me.

From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan

There is a particular thrill in beholding a portrait as old and as lifelike as Isidora’s, just over a foot in height and 6 inches wide.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026

“The Times posed the question, ‘Will Swift ever voluntarily step away from the spotlight?’ as if beholding a woman in full flow and power invariably summoned the fantasy of her involuntary removal from the scene.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2025

In the context of the story, the narrator is describing his descent into insanity after beholding the most grotesque, ungodly beast in existence.

From Salon ● Mar. 18, 2025

Still, while beholding this inspiring mobilization, a basic question kept nagging at me: How do you even get tens of thousands of people in one Zoom call, let alone 100,000?

From Slate ● Aug. 2, 2024

Her frantic joy at beholding me again moved me much.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë