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belonging

noun

Simple meaning

The feeling of being accepted as part of a group.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

bihlawnging

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

bɪˈlɔŋɪŋ

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. countablechiefly in the plural

    Something physical that is owned.

  2. uncountable

    The feeling that one belongs.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Something physical that is owned.

Used this way, belonging 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 belonging

  • “With his classmates he felt a sense of belonging.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Physical

property belonging

Family

house belonging

Other combinations

land belongingspecies belonging

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

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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.