VocabauraVOCABAURA

bull

noun · adjective · verb

Simple meaning

An adult male of domesticated cattle or oxen.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

buul
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbʊl

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. An adult male of domesticated cattle or oxen.

  2. Uncastrated adult male of domestic cattle

  3. An adult male of certain large mammals, such as whales, elephants, camels and seals.

  4. Any adult male bovine.

  5. loosely

    Any bovine of an aggressive or long-horned breed regardless of age and sex.

  6. Specifically, one that is uncastrated.

adjective

  1. Large and strong, like a bull.

verb

  1. intransitiveoften with into or through

    To force oneself (in a particular direction); to move aggressively.

  2. To mock; to cheat.

  3. intransitive

    To lie, to tell untruths.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
General English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: An adult male of domesticated cattle or oxen.

Used this way, bull 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 bull

  • “He was a bull of a man.”noun

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “bull”. We review each one before it appears.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Uncastrated / adult

sitting bullbull moose

Other combinations

bull runbull marketpit bullred bullsurvey bullwhite bull

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • bullynounDerived noun

    A cruel and brutal fellow.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • bull baynounCompound term

    Evergreen tree of southern United States having large stiff glossy leaves and huge white sweet-smelling flowers.

  • bull fiddlenounCompound term

    Largest and lowest member of the violin family.

  • bull marketnounCompound term

    A market characterized by rising prices for securities.

  • bull mastiffnounCompound term

    Large powerful breed developed by crossing the bulldog and the mastiff.

  • bull moose partynounCompound term

    A former political party in the United States.

  • bull necknounCompound term

    A thick short powerful neck.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

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 “bull” 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.