basking shark
noun
Simple meaning
Large harmless plankton-eating northern shark.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
baskihngshahrkSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbæskɪŋˈʃɑɹk
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
Large harmless plankton-eating northern shark; often swims slowly or floats at the sea surface
A very large shark, Cetorhinus maximus, that feeds at or close to the surface by filtering plankton from the water and is found in all the world's temperate oceans.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Large harmless plankton-eating northern shark; often swims slowly or floats at the sea surface
Used this way, basking shark 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
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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