arse
verb
Simple meaning
To be silly, act stupid or mess around.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ahrsIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɑɹs
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
commonwealthslangintransitive
To be silly, act stupid or mess around.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To be silly, act stupid or mess around.
Used this way, arse is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Very casual
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Playful and informal
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Usage note
Slang: natural in speech and messages between friends, but out of place in school, work or published writing.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Be lazy or idle.
Be lazy or idle.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.