bleach
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To be whitened or lightened.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bleechIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈblitʃ
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.
verb
transitive
To treat with bleach, especially so as to whiten (fabric, paper, etc.) or lighten (hair).
intransitive
To be whitened or lightened (by the sun, for example).
transitivefigurative
To make meaningless; to divest of meaning; to make empty.
Make whiter or lighter
noun
uncountable
A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.
An act of bleaching; exposure to the sun.
countable
A variety of bleach.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.
Used this way, bleach is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- whitener , rarer, so it draws attention
- bleaching agent , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use bleach
- “The sun bleached the red shirt.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An outdoor grandstand without a roof.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A solution containing bleaching agents that is used to bleach textiles or paper pulp.
Remove color from.
An adsorbent clay that will remove coloring from oils.
An adsorbent clay that will remove coloring from oils.
A white powder comprised of calcium hydroxide and chloride and hypochlorite and used to bleach and/or disinfect.
An agent that makes things white or colorless.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.