The word "been" is the past participle of the verb "be." It is used to indicate existence, identity, or a state of being in the past. For example, in the sentence "I have been to Paris," it shows that the speaker visited Paris at some point before now. "Been" is commonly used in various tenses, especially the present perfect tense. This tense connects past actions or states to the present. For instance, "She has been studying" implies that her studying started in the past and continues to the present.