bladder
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A flexible sac that can expand and contract and that holds liquids or gases.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bladerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈblædɚ
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
zoology
A flexible sac that can expand and contract and that holds liquids or gases.
anatomy
Specifically, the urinary bladder.
The inflatable bag inside various balls used in sports, such as footballs and rugby balls.
A container in the form of a flexible bag.
A sealed plastic bag that contains wine and is usually packaged in a cask.
figurative
Anything inflated, empty, or unsound.
verb
To swell out like a bladder with air; to inflate.
transitive
To store or put up in bladders.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A flexible sac that can expand and contract and that holds liquids or gases.
Used this way, bladder is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in law or legal contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
Nearby words
- vesica , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use bladder
- “She drank a lot of water, so her bladder felt full quickly.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A disorder of the urinary bladder.
Any fern of the genus Cystopteris characterized by a hooded indusium or bladderlike membrane covering the sori.
A common rockweed used in preparing kelp and as manure.
Annual weedy herb with ephemeral yellow purple-eyed flowers.
Yellow-flowered European shrub cultivated for its succession of yellow flowers and very inflated bladdery pods and as a source of wildlife food.
The sphincter muscle of the urinary bladder.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: flexible sac that can expand and contract and that holds liquids
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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.