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advocate

verb · noun

Simple meaning

A person who publicly supports a cause or another person.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

advuhkuht

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈædvəkət

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. Speak, plead, or argue in favor of

    “The doctor advocated a smoking ban in the entire house.”

  2. transitive

    To plead in favour of; to defend by argument, before a tribunal or the public; to support, vindicate, or recommend publicly.

  3. transitive

    To encourage support for something.

  4. Push for something

  5. intransitivewith for

    To engage in advocacy.

noun

  1. A person who speaks in support of something, or someone; proponent

  2. Anyone who argues the case of another; an intercessor.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Speak, plead, or argue in favor of

Used this way, advocate is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Heard in a sentence
“The doctor advocated a smoking ban in the entire house.”
Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use advocate

  • “The doctor advocated a smoking ban in the entire house.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

lord advocategreat advocate

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • devil's advocatenounCompound term

    Someone who takes the worse side just for the sake of argument.

  • judge advocatenounCompound term

    An officer assigned to the judge advocate general.

  • judge advocate generalnounCompound term

    The senior legal advisor to a branch of the military.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: person who speaks in support of something

proponent

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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.