big brother
noun
Simple meaning
Any omnipresent authority or figurehead representing oppressive control.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bigbruhtherSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɪɡbˈɹʌðɚ
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
Any omnipresent authority or figurehead representing oppressive control.
Unwarranted, invasive, and discreet surveillance, especially of a people by its government.
figurative
Something that is bigger in comparison.
figurative
Early mobile phones (in China)
often childish
A sibling's older brother.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any omnipresent authority or figurehead representing oppressive control.
Used this way, big brother 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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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.