bearing
noun · verb · adjective
Form of bear , present participle of bear.
Simple meaning
One's posture, demeanor.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
behringSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɛɹɪŋ
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
One's posture, demeanor, or manner.
“She walks with a confident, self-assured bearing.”
in the plural
Direction or relative position.
Relevance; a relationship or connection.
“That has no bearing on this issue.”
verb
present participle of bear
(now transitive outside certain set patterns such as 'bear with'; formerly also intransitive) To endure or withstand (hardship, scrutiny, etc.); to tolerate; to be patient (with).
present participle of bear
To support, sustain, or endure.
To carry or convey, literally or figuratively.
“Judging from the look on his face, he wasn't bearing good news.”
To press or impinge upon.
To produce, yield, give birth to.
To gain or win.
adjective
Of a beam, column, or other device, carrying weight or load.
in combination
That bears (some specified thing).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: One's posture, demeanor, or manner.
Used this way, bearing is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“She walks with a confident, self-assured bearing.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- heading , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Posturenoun
“She walks with a confident, self-assured bearing.”
Relevancenoun
“That has no bearing on this issue.”
Carryverb
“Judging from the look on his face, he wasn't bearing good news.”
More ways to use bearing
- “Those issues have no bearing on our situation.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Someone whose employment involves carrying something.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A brass bushing or a lining for a bearing.
An alloy (often of lead or tin base) used for bearings.
A rein designed to keep the horse's head in the desired position.
Any wall supporting a floor or the roof of a building.
Criminal offense of making false statements under oath.
Heraldry consisting of a design or image depicted on a shield.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.