bloom
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The opening of flowers in general.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bloomIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈblum
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
uncountable
The opening of flowers in general; the state of blossoming or of having the flowers open.
A blossom; the flower of a plant; an expanded bud.
figuratively
A state or time of beauty, freshness, and vigor; an opening to higher perfection, analogous to that of buds into blossoms.
collective
The organic process of bearing flowers
“You will stop all bloom if you let the flowers go to seed.”
collective
Flowers.
Anything giving an appearance of attractive freshness.
verb
transitive
To cause to blossom; to make flourish.
intransitivefiguratively
Of a person, business, etc, to flourish; to be in a state of healthful, growing youth and vigour; to show beauty and freshness.
intransitivefiguratively
To spread; to slowly expand like a field of flowers that blossom in fits and spurts.
intransitive
Of a plant, to produce blooms; to open its blooms.
transitive
To bestow a bloom upon; to make blooming or radiant.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The opening of flowers in general; the state of blossoming or of having the flowers open.
Used this way, bloom 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.
More ways to use bloom
- “You will stop all bloom if you let the flowers go to seed.”noun
- “The cherry tree bloomed.”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.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The organic process of bearing flowers.
A flower that blooms in a particular way.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Hybrid winter-blooming begonia grown for its many large pink flowers.
The best time of youth.
A reddish mineral consisting of hydrated cobalt arsenate in monoclinic crystalline form and used in coloring glass.
Deciduous shrub or small tree with pyramidal flower clusters.
Any of several night-blooming cacti of the genus Selenicereus.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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.