bulb
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Electric lamp made up of a transparent or translucent glass housing containing a wire filament that emits light when heated by electricity.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
buhlbIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbʌlb
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
A light bulb (not necessarily bulbous in shape).
Electric lamp consisting of a transparent or translucent glass housing containing a wire filament (usually tungsten) that emits light when heated by electricity
The bulb-shaped underground portion of a plant such as a tulip, consisting of a shortened stem and many fleshy scale leaves, from which the rest of the plant may be regrown.
Any solid object rounded at one end and tapering on the other, possibly attached to a larger object at the tapered end.
verb
intransitive
To take the shape of a bulb; to swell.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The bulb-shaped underground portion of a plant such as a tulip, consisting of a shortened stem and many fleshy scale leaves, from which the rest of the plant may be regrown.
Used this way, bulb 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 bulb
- “The light bulb in the lamp needs to be replaced tonight.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: light bulb (not necessarily bulbous in shape)
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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.