butler
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The chief male servant of a household who has charge of other employees, receives guests, directs the serving of meals, and performs different personal services.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
buhtlerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbʌtlɚ
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
The chief male servant of a household who has charge of other employees, receives guests, directs the serving of meals, and performs various personal services.
A valet, a male personal attendant.
A manservant (usually the head servant of a household) who has charge of wines and the table
A manservant having charge of wines and liquors.
An English and Irish surname from Middle English [in turn originating as an occupation], for someone who was a butler or wine servant.
English novelist who described a fictitious land he called Erewhon (1835-1902)
verb
To buttle, to dispense wines or liquors; to take the place of a butler.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The chief male servant of a household who has charge of other employees, receives guests, directs the serving of meals, and performs various personal services.
Used this way, butler is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Family/home
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use butler
- “The old mansion had a butler who served all the guests.”
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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.