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aggressive

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Prone to behave in a way that involves attacking or arguing.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhgrehsiv

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

əɡˈɹɛsɪv

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.

adjective

  1. Characterized by aggression; highly combative; prone to behave in a way that involves attacking (especially if unjustly) or arguing.

  2. pathologyof a tumour or disease

    That spreads quickly or extensively; virulent; malignant.

  3. especially programmingof a method or process

    Exploiting every opportunity to be applied.

noun

  1. One who is aggressive.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Varies by meaning

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Characterized by aggression; highly combative; prone to behave in a way that involves attacking (especially if unjustly) or arguing.

Used this way, aggressive is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It comes across as direct, sometimes bluntly so.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Gentle
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Blunt and forceful

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

More ways to use aggressive

  • “An aggressive businessman.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

aggressive behaviorless aggressiveaggressive policyaggressive actionaggressive behaviouraggressive treatmentaggressive actsaggressive attitude

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • aggressornounPerson or profession

    Someone who attacks.

  • aggressivelyadverbDerived adverb

    In an aggressive manner.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

adjective

Sense: characterized by aggression

militantpugnacious

noun

Sense: one who is aggressive

militant

Antonyms

Sense: characterized by aggression

nonaggressiveunaggressiveRare

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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.