to belong to
∞
1.0
- phrasal verb
- /bɪˈlɔŋ tu/
- You are my niece and you belong to Old New York.
- belong to a group
- belong to a minority
- belong to an organization
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Watch on YouTubeNo, they think of themselves as belonging to a band.
- No, they think of themselves as belonging to a band.
- So those e-mail addresses belong to you and not the platform.
- You are my niece and you belong to Old New York.
- It is a mandate that belongs to and unites all of us.
- Taking a seat that doesn't belong to them, Jumping in line?
- Just one dream with one common plot belonging to a number of dreamers.
- As an object of experience, I belong to the sensible world.
- All of what we go through belongs to the process.
- There are factions, chapters all belong to the same headquarters.
- And things that belong to Alan Hynek and things like that.
- Well the gear belonged to three brothers in London.
Examples
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These books belong to a collection on ancient history.
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No, they think of themselves as belonging to a band.
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So you can just say these belong to the set of real numbers, right?
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Um, who do you belong to?
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Because the country belongs to us, man.
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This money belongs to the poor!
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Find out who this number belongs to.
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However, we have to face the reality that the two sides belong to separate jurisdictions.
Academic text (1999) -
Well, now Hong Kong and Shanghai belong to China financial centers.
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Asian Americans and African Americans were less likely to belong to the substance use groups than European Americans.
Academic text (2011)
Synonyms
1
9.1
Be part of or connected with something, often as a right
Antonyms
How Connected
Surface Forms
Morphology
belong + to
The meaning 'to be part of or connected with' is directly compositional from 'belong' (to be a member of) plus the preposition 'to' marking the target group/place; a B1 learner who knows these constituents can infer the phrase's meaning. This construction and its mapping are cross-linguistically common and follows a regular English verb + preposition pattern, so it is transparently understood.
Etymology
Belong to brings a simple picture: a key that fits a lock or a book on the right shelf. If something fits, we say it belongs to that place, meaning it is 'part of' or 'connected with' that group.