abroad
adverb
Simple meaning
Beyond the bounds of a country.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhbrawdSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əbˈɹɔd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adverb
Beyond the bounds of a country; in foreign countries.
sports
Played elsewhere than one's home grounds.
Not on target; astray; in error; confused; dazed.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Beyond the bounds of a country; in foreign countries.
'Abroad' means in another country, and it carries a sense of travel and foreignness. It's often used with 'go' or 'study' and is distinctly different from simply being 'out of the house.'
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where you'll really hear it
Travel planning
“Many students choose to study abroad during their junior year.”
News headlines
“The diplomat served abroad for ten years in various capacities.”
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use abroad
- “They had never travelled abroad.”adverb
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Naval service aboard a ship at sea.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.