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caress

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To touch or kiss lovingly.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kerehs

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

kɚˈɛs

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.

verb

  1. transitive

    To touch or kiss lovingly; to fondle.

  2. transitive

    To affect as if with a caress.

noun

  1. An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness.

  2. A gentle affectionate stroking (or something resembling it)

  3. A gentle stroking or rubbing.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Uncommon

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To touch or kiss lovingly; to fondle.

Used this way, caress 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
No strong connotation
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 caress

  • “He caressed her face.”verb

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • caressingnounInflected form

    Affectionate play (or foreplay without contact with the genital organs).

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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.