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buff

noun · adjective · verb

Simple meaning

Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

buhf
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbʌf

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. Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals.

  2. A soft thick undyed leather from the skins of e.g. buffalo or oxen

  3. A tool, often one covered with buff leather, used for polishing.

  4. A brownish yellow colour.

  5. The greyish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat.

  6. Any substance used to dilute (street) drugs in order to increase profits.

adjective

  1. Of the color of buff leather, a brownish yellow.

verb

  1. To polish and make shiny by rubbing.

  2. To strike.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals.

Used this way, buff 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 buff

  • “My brother is a real history buff, always reading about past events.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Soft / undyed

buff leather

Tool / military

buff coat

Other combinations

pale buffbuff warehistory buffbuff colorbuff claymovie buff

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • buffernounInflected form

    An ionic compound that resists changes in its pH.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • buffer countrynounCompound term

    A small neutral state between two rival powers.

  • buffer solutionnounCompound term

    A solution containing a buffer.

  • buffer statenounCompound term

    A small neutral state between two rival powers.

  • buffer storagenounCompound term

    A part of RAM used for temporary storage of data that is waiting to be sent to a device.

  • buffer storenounCompound term

    A part of RAM used for temporary storage of data that is waiting to be sent to a device.

  • buffer zonenounCompound term

    A neutral zone between two rival powers that is created in order to diminish the danger of conflict.

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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.