alliance
noun
Simple meaning
A union or connection of interests between families, states.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhlyuhnsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈlaɪəns
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
countable
A union or connection of interests between families, states, parties, etc., especially between families by marriage and states by compact, treaty, or league.
countable
The act of allying or uniting.
countable
Any union resembling that of families or states; union by relationship in qualities; affinity.
The state of being allied or confederated
with the definite article
The persons or parties allied.
A master planned community in Denton County and Tarrant County, Texas, United States.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A union or connection of interests between families, states, parties, etc., especially between families by marriage and states by compact, treaty, or league.
Used this way, alliance is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.
- 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
- Family/home
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use alliance
- “The shifting alliances within a large family.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A multiethnic alliance in Afghanistan who practice a moderate form of Islam and are united in their opposition to the Taliban.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The alliance of nations that fought the Axis in World War II and which (with subsequent additions) signed the charter of the United Nations in 1945.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.