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brain

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The control center of the central nervous system of an animal located in the skull which is responsible for perception, cognition, attention, memory.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

brayn
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbɹeɪn

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.

noun

  1. The control center of the central nervous system of an animal located in the skull which is responsible for perception, cognition, attention, memory, emotion, and action.

  2. A part of the brain, especially associated with particular mental functions, abilities, etc.

    “He's got plenty of brains but no common sense.”

  3. That part of the central nervous system that includes all the higher nervous centers; enclosed within the skull; continuous with the spinal cord

  4. By analogy with a human brain, the part of a machine or computer that performs calculations.

  5. informal

    Mind.

  6. in the singular

    An intellectual or mental capacity.

verb

  1. Hit on the head

  2. transitive

    To strike (someone) on the head.

  3. transitivefigurative

    To destroy; to put an end to.

  4. transitive

    To dash out the brains of; to kill by smashing the skull.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The control center of the central nervous system of an animal located in the skull which is responsible for perception, cognition, attention, memory, emotion, and action.

Used this way, brain 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 brain

  • “He's got plenty of brains but no common sense.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Control / analogy

human brainbrain tissue

Other combinations

brain damagebrain stembrain injurybrain tumorsbrain resrat brain

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • brain mushroomnounCompound term

    A poisonous gyromitra.

  • brain sciencenounCompound term

    The branch of neuroscience concerned with the brain.

  • brain-stemnounCompound term

    The part of the brain continuous with the spinal cord and comprising the medulla oblongata and pons and midbrain and parts of the hypothalamus.

  • brain sugarnounCompound term

    A simple sugar found in lactose.

  • brain surgeonnounCompound term

    Someone who does surgery on the nervous system (especially the brain).

  • brain surgerynounCompound term

    Any surgical procedure involving the brain.

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.