bar
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A rigid piece of metal or wood.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bahrIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɑɹ
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.
noun
A rigid piece of metal or wood; usually used as a fastening or obstruction or weapon
“There were bars in the windows to prevent escape.”
A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length.
A cuboid piece of any solid commodity.
A broad shaft, band, or stripe.
A long, narrow drawn or printed rectangle, cuboid or cylinder, especially as used in a bar code or a bar chart.
countableuncountablemetallurgy
A solid metal object with uniform (round, square, hexagonal, octagonal or rectangular) cross-section; in the US its smallest dimension is ¹⁄₄ inch or greater, a piece of thinner material being called a strip.
verb
transitive
To obstruct the passage of (someone or something).
transitive
To prohibit.
transitive
To lock or bolt with a bar.
To imprint or paint with bars, to stripe.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A rigid piece of metal or wood; usually used as a fastening or obstruction or weapon
Used this way, bar is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“There were bars in the windows to prevent escape.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “bar in …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: bar in …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use bar
- “There were bars in the windows to prevent escape.”noun
- “He drowned his sorrows in whiskey at the bar.”noun
- “It was an excellent kick but the ball hit the bar.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
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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.