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approach

verb · noun

Simple meaning

Come near or verge on, resemble, come nearer in quality.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhprohch

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

əpˈɹoʊtʃ

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. Come near or verge on, resemble, come nearer in quality, or character

  2. intransitive

    To come or go near, in place or time; to move toward; to advance nearer; to draw nigh.

  3. ambitransitivefiguratively

    Used intransitively, followed by to: to draw near (to someone or something); to make advances; to approximate or become almost equal.

  4. transitivealso figuratively

    To move toward (someone or something) in place, time, character, or value; to draw nearer to.

  5. transitive

    To bring (something) near something else; to cause (something) to draw near.

  6. transitive

    To attempt to make (a policy) or solve (a problem).

noun

  1. The act of drawing spatially closer to something

    “The hunter's approach scattered the geese.”

  2. also figuratively

    An avenue, passage, or way by which a building or place can be approached; an access.

  3. An act of coming near in character or value; an approximation.

  4. also figuratively

    An act of drawing near in place or time; an advancing or coming near.

  5. figuratively

    A manner of making (a policy) or solving (a problem, etc.).

  6. A specific procedure used for approaching and landing at an airport.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Come near or verge on, resemble, come nearer in quality, or character

Used this way, approach 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

Nearby words

  • attack , a specialist term, precise but narrower

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use approach

  • “I was approached by the President to serve as his adviser in foreign matters.”verb
  • “His approach to every problem is to draw up a list of pros and cons.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

alternative approach

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • approachingnounInflected form

    The event of one object coming closer to another.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • approachableadjectiveDerived adjective

    Easy to meet or converse or do business with.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • approach patternnounCompound term

    The path that is prescribed for an airplane that is preparing to land at an airport.

  • approach shotnounCompound term

    A relatively short golf shot intended to put the ball onto the putting green.

  • approach trenchnounCompound term

    A trench that provides protected passage between the rear and front lines of a defensive position.

  • approach pathnounCompound term

    The final path followed by an aircraft as it is landing.

  • ground-controlled approachnounCompound term

    Aircraft landing in bad weather in which the pilot is talked down by ground control using precision approach radar.

  • landing approachnounCompound term

    The approach to a landing field by an airplane.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: come near or verge on or resemble

advanceoverturedraw nearcome onnearattackTechnical

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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.