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bother

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To annoy, to disturb, to irritate.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

bahther

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbɑðɚ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. transitive

    To annoy, to disturb, to irritate; to be troublesome to, to make trouble for.

  2. Take the trouble to do something; concern oneself

  3. intransitivecatenative

    To take the trouble, to trouble oneself (to do something).

  4. intransitive or reflexive

    To feel care or concern; to burden or inconvenience oneself out of concern.

  5. To do something which is of negligible inconvenience.

noun

  1. Something or someone that causes trouble; a source of unhappiness

  2. Trouble, inconvenience.

  3. Fuss, ado.

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: To annoy, to disturb, to irritate; to be troublesome to, to make trouble for.

Used this way, bother is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Everyday but emotionally strong

Nearby words

  • incommode , rarer, so it draws attention
  • nark , more casual, better suited to speech than writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use bother

  • “The mere thought of her bothered him and made his heart beat faster.”verb
  • “Mosquitoes buzzing in my ear really bothers me.”verb
  • “Don't bother the professor while she is grading term papers.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

bother looking

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • fuss

    To disturb (a person).

  • vex

    To annoy, irritate.

  • hassle

    To trouble, to bother, to annoy.

  • gravel

    To puzzle or annoy.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

verb

Sense: to annoy or to disturb or to irritate

annoyincommodeRarehassleput outvexnarkInformaldevilget at

noun

Sense: something or someone that causes trouble

incommodeArchaicbotherationRarehasslepain

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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.