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away

adverb · adjective

Simple meaning

Aside, so as to discard something.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhway

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

əˈweɪ

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.

adverb

  1. Aside; off; in another direction.

  2. Aside, so as to discard something.

  3. At a distance in space or time

    “The boat was 5 miles off (or away).”

  4. From a place, hence.

  5. From a particular thing or place or position (`forth' is obsolete)

  6. Out of the way (especially away from one's thoughts)

adjective

  1. At a specified distance in space, time, or figuratively.

  2. Not here, gone, absent, unavailable, traveling; on vacation.

  3. chiefly sports

    Not on one's home territory.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Aside; off; in another direction.

Used this way, away 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

  • out , more casual, better suited to speech than writing

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

More ways to use away

  • “The boat was 5 miles off (or away).”adverb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

far away

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • away gamenounCompound term

    A game played away from home.

  • back awayverbCompound term

    Make a retreat from an earlier commitment or activity.

  • barter awayverbCompound term

    Trade in in a bartering transaction.

  • bear awayverbCompound term

    Remove from a certain place, environment, or mental or emotional state.

  • beaver awayverbCompound term

    Work hard on something.

  • blaze awayverbCompound term

    Perform (an acting passage) brilliantly and rapidly.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: aside

forthArchaic

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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.