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beef

noun · adjective · verb

Simple meaning

Cattle that are reared for their meat.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

beef
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbif

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. Cattle that are reared for their meat

  2. uncountable

    The meat from cattle or other bovines.

  3. Meat from an adult domestic bovine

  4. in the meat industryon product packaging

    The edible portions of a cow (including those which are not meat).

  5. (now chiefly Canada, US, countable, now uncommon, plural beeves) A bovine (cow or bull) being raised for its meat.

  6. uncountable

    Bovine animals.

adjective

  1. Being a bovine animal that is being raised for its meat.

  2. Producing or known for raising lots of beef.

  3. Consisting of or containing beef as an ingredient.

verb

  1. intransitiveslang

    To complain.

  2. intransitiveslangAustralia

    To sing or speak loudly; to cry out.

  3. transitiveslang

    To add weight or strength to.

  4. intransitiveslang

    To fart; break wind.

  5. transitiveslang

    To fail or mess up.

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: Cattle that are reared for their meat

Used this way, beef 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.

More ways to use beef

  • “My mom cooked a delicious beef stew for dinner.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Cattle / meat

beef cattle

Essence

ground beef

Other combinations

roast beefsalt beefbeef stewbeef teabeef brothfresh beef

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • beef cattlenounCompound term

    Cattle that are reared for their meat.

  • beef fonduenounCompound term

    Cubes of beef cooked in hot oil and then dipped in various tasty sauces.

  • beef goulashnounCompound term

    Meat is browned before stewing.

  • beef jerkynounCompound term

    Strips of dried beef.

  • beef loinnounCompound term

    Cut of meat from a loin of beef.

  • beef mannounCompound term

    A man who raises (or tends) cattle.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: cattle that are reared for their meat

beef cattle

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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.