allege
verb
Simple meaning
To make a claim as justification or proof.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhlehjSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈlɛdʒ
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.
verb
transitive
To make a claim as justification or proof; to make an assertion without proof.
transitive
To adduce (something) as a reason, excuse, support etc.
To lighten, diminish.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To make a claim as justification or proof; to make an assertion without proof.
Used this way, allege is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately 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 allege
- “He alleged that he was the victim of a crime.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action.
A formal accusation against somebody (often in a court of law).
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
According to what has been alleged.
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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.