buy
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To get in exchange for money or goods.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
byIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbaɪ
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.
verb
Obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction
transitiveditransitive
To obtain (something) in exchange for money or goods.
transitiveditransitive
To obtain, especially by some sacrifice.
intransitive
To make a purchase or purchases, to treat (for a drink, meal or gift)
transitive
To be equivalent to in value.
transitiveinformal
To accept as true; to believe
noun
Something which is bought; a purchase.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction
Used this way, buy is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a financial use: it has a settled meaning in accounting and business, where precision matters more than colour.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Finance/economics
- Business/professional
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use buy
- “This sum will buy you a ride on the train.”verb
- “She wanted to buy his love with her dedication to him and his work.”verb
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Buy stocks or shares of a company.
Be killed or die.
Pay someone with influence in order to receive a favor.
Take over ownership of.
Pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life.
Act so as to delay an event or action in order to gain an advantage.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A market in which more people want to sell than want to buy.
A market in which more people want to sell than want to buy.
A bid to buy all of a person's holdings.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: obtain by purchase
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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.