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busy

adjective · verb

Simple meaning

Having a lot to do, or full of people and activity.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

bizee

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbɪzi

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.

adjective

  1. Crowded with business or activities; having a great deal going on.

  2. Having much work to do; having much to get done.

  3. Having a lot going on; complicated or intricate.

  4. Engaged with or preoccupied by an activity or person.

  5. Officious; meddling.

verb

  1. Keep busy with

  2. transitiveusually reflexive

    To make somebody busy or active; to occupy.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Crowded with business or activities; having a great deal going on.

Used this way, busy is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Business/professional

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use busy

  • “I am too busy right now; can we talk about this later this afternoon?”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

busy daybusy lifebusy making

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • busy beenounCompound term

    An alert and energetic person.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: crowded with business or activities

meddlesome

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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.