agony aunt
noun
Simple meaning
A writer of an advice column in a newspaper or other periodical.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
aguhneeantSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈæɡəniænt
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.
noun
informalbritishireland
A writer of an advice column in a newspaper or other periodical.
informalBritishIreland
A newspaper columnist who answers questions and offers advice on personal problems to people who write in
informalbritishireland
Someone commonly consulted for advice about personal problems.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: A writer of an advice column in a newspaper or other periodical.
Used this way, agony aunt is a word tied to one variety of English that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in news or reporting and everyday conversation contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Regional
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- News/reporting
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Usage note
Mainly used in British English, so it may read as unusual elsewhere.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.