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cage

noun · verb

Simple meaning

An enclosure made or wire or metal bars in which birds or animals can be kept.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kayj
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkeɪdʒ

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 enclosure made or wire or metal bars in which birds or animals can be kept

  2. An enclosure made of bars, normally to hold animals.

  3. The passenger compartment of a lift.

  4. figuratively

    Something that hinders freedom.

  5. In killer sudoku puzzles, an irregularly-shaped group of cells that must contain a set of unique digits adding up to a certain total, in addition to the usual constraints of sudoku.

  6. A wirework strainer, used in connection with pumps and pipes.

verb

  1. transitivefiguratively

    To restrict someone's movement or creativity.

  2. To track individual responses to direct mail, either (advertising) to maintain and develop mailing lists or (politics) to identify people who are not eligible to vote because they do not reside at the registered addresses.

  3. transitiveslang

    To imprison.

  4. transitive

    To confine in a cage; to put into and keep in a cage.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
General and technical use

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: An enclosure made or wire or metal bars in which birds or animals can be kept

Used this way, cage 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 cage

  • “The most dangerous prisoners are locked away in a cage.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Enclosure

rib cagebird cagewire cage

Other combinations

iron cagethoracic cagesquirrel cagecage doorcage induction

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • cage inverbCompound term

    Confine in a cage.

  • iron cagenounCompound term

    A cage from which there is no escape.

  • rib cagenounCompound term

    The bony enclosing wall of the chest.

  • batting cagenounCompound term

    A movable screen placed behind home base to catch balls during batting practice.

  • squirrel cagenounCompound term

    Cage with a cylindrical framework that rotates as a small animal runs inside it.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to restrict someone's movement or creativity

cage in

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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.