air
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The invisible mix of gases around the earth that we breathe.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehrIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛɹ
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
uncountable
The substance constituting Earth's atmosphere: a gaseous mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and various trace gases.
The substance of the atmosphere seen as an agency of freshness.
uncountableloosely
The substance of the atmosphere on a planet other than Earth.
A sense of poise, graciousness, or quality.
A feeling or sense.
countableuncountable
An air conditioning system.
verb
transitive
To bring (something) into contact with the air, so as to freshen or dry it.
transitive
To let fresh air into (a room or a building), to ventilate.
transitive
To make public (an opinion, concern, issue, secret, differences, etc); to present to public view (and sometimes discussion).
transitive
To broadcast (a television show etc.).
Pronunciation spelling of are.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The substance constituting Earth's atmosphere: a gaseous mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and various trace gases.
Used this way, air is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This sense is used where position and measurement matter — travel, weather and flight — so it reads as factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Geography/travel
- Weather/aviation
- Technical/specialist writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use air
- “The program was on the air from 9 til midnight.”noun
- “Her hand stopped in mid air.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.