british

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

The people of Great Britain.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

british

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbɹɪtɪʃ

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

The people of Great Britain
The residents or inhabitants of Great Britain.
The citizens or inhabitants of the United Kingdom.
The Celtic language of the ancient Britons; Common Brittonic.
chiefly us
The British English language.

adjective

Of or relating to or characteristic of Great Britain or its people or culture
Of the United Kingdom.
informalproscribed
Of England; English.
Of the Commonwealth of Nations, or the British Empire.
Of British English.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency: Very Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The people of Great Britain

Used this way, british 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: Moderate
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 british

“His wife is British.”adjective

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Citizens / united

british government

Commonwealth

british army

Other combinations

british journalbritish rulebritish troopsbritish policytwo britishfirst british

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

british cabinetnounCompound term
The senior ministers of the British government.
british capacity unitnounCompound term
A unit of measure for capacity officially adopted in the British Imperial System.
british commonwealthnounCompound term
An association of nations consisting of the United Kingdom and several former British colonies that are now sovereign states but still pay allegiance to the British Crown.
british crownnounCompound term
The symbol of the power of the British monarchy.
british east africanounCompound term
The former British territories of eastern Africa, including Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, and Zanzibar.
british empirenounCompound term
A former empire consisting of Great Britain and all the territories under its control.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: people of Great Britain

british people

Use This Word

See how this word sounds in a real sentence.

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Knowing “british” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

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.