block out
verb
Simple meaning
To prevent from entering or penetrating.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
blahkowtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈblɑˈkaʊt
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 prevent from entering or penetrating.
idiomatictransitive
To prevent (a thought) from entering one's mind.
transitive
To cover something, so as to make it impossible to see.
transitive
To begin to reduce to shape; to mark out roughly; to lay out.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To prevent from entering or penetrating.
Used this way, block out 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
- No strong connotation
- 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.