anaerobic
adjective
Simple meaning
Involving glycolysis rather than using oxygen to supply bodily energy needs.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
anuhrohbeekSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˌænəˈɹoʊbik
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Without oxygen; especially of an environment or organism.
Of exercise, involving glycolysis (the conversion of glucose to adenosine triphosphate) rather than using oxygen to supply bodily energy needs.
Of or relating to an anaerobe.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Without oxygen; especially of an environment or organism.
Used this way, anaerobic is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Exercise that builds muscles through tension.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.