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attribute

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A quality or feature of someone or something; also to say something was caused by someone.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

atruhbyoot

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈætɹəbjut

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.

noun

  1. A characteristic or quality of a thing.

  2. An object that is considered typical of someone or some function, in particular as an artistic convention.

  3. grammar

    A word that qualifies a noun.

verb

  1. transitive

    To associate ownership or authorship of (something) to someone.

  2. transitive

    To ascribe (something) to a given cause, reason etc.; to affix.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A characteristic or quality of a thing.

Used this way, attribute 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
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • property , 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 attribute

  • “We attributed this quotation to Shakespeare.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Word

some attribute

Numeric

attribute valueimportant attribute

Other combinations

essential attribute

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • attributableadjectiveDerived adjective

    Capable of being attributed.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: characteristic or quality of a thing

propertyTechnical

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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.