bill
noun · verb
Simple meaning
a list of charges for services, or a piece of paper money
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bilIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɪl
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
An itemized statement of money owed for goods shipped or services rendered
“He paid his bill and left.”
uscanada
A piece of paper money; a banknote.
USCanada
A piece of paper money (especially one issued by a central bank)
A written note of goods sold, services rendered, or work done, with the price or charge owing; an invoice.
A statute in draft before it becomes law
“They held a public hearing on the bill.”
A draft of a law, presented to a legislature for enactment; a proposed or projected law.
verb
transitive
To charge; to send a bill to.
transitive
To dig, chop, etc., with a bill.
transitive
To advertise by a bill or public notice.
To stroke bill against bill, with reference to doves; to caress in fondness
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An itemized statement of money owed for goods shipped or services rendered
Used this way, bill is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“He paid his bill and left.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- banknote , rarer, so it draws attention
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.
Itemized / writtennoun
“He paid his bill and left.”
Statutenoun
“They held a public hearing on the bill.”
More ways to use bill
- “He paid his bill and left.”noun
- “They held a public hearing on the bill.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Request for payment of a debt.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A short stout club used primarily by policemen.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A statement of fundamental rights and privileges (especially the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution).
A deed transferring personal property.
Someone who pastes up bills or placards on walls or billboards.
United States basketball center (born in 1934).
Someone who pastes up bills or placards on walls or billboards.
42nd President of the United States (1946-).
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.