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allow

verb

Simple meaning

Consent to, give permission.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhlow

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

əˈlaʊ

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.

verb

  1. transitivecatenative

    To permit, to give permission to.

  2. Consent to, give permission

  3. ditransitive

    To let one have as a suitable share of something.

  4. transitive

    To acknowledge, accept the truth of; to concede; to accede to an opinion.

  5. transitive

    To grant (something) as a deduction or an addition; especially to abate or deduct.

  6. transitive

    To make an allowance, to take into account when making plans.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (transitive, catenative) To permit, to give permission to.

Used this way, allow 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.

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • permit

    Consent to, give permission.

  • leave

    To give leave to; allow; permit; let; grant.

  • admit

    To give warrant or allowance, to grant opportunity or permission.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • allowancenounDerived noun

    An amount allowed or granted (as during a given period).

  • allowableadjectiveDerived adjective

    That may be permitted especially as according to rule.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • allow inverbCompound term

    Allow to enter.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to permit or to give permission to

permit

Antonyms

Sense: to permit or to give permission to

disallow

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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.