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cave

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A hole, depression, or gap in earth or rock, whether natural or man-made.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kayv
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkeɪv

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. A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.

  2. A hole, depression, or gap in earth or rock, whether natural or man-made.

  3. A storage cellar, especially for wine or cheese.

  4. A place of retreat, such as a man cave.

  5. The 18th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.

verb

  1. To collapse.

  2. To hollow out or undermine.

  3. figurative

    To surrender.

  4. Hollow out as if making a cave or opening

  5. To engage in the recreational exploration of caves.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.

Used this way, cave 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 cave

  • “The deposit is caved by knocking out the posts.”verb
  • “We found a cave on the mountainside where we could take shelter.”noun
  • “This wine has been aged in our cave for thirty years.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

mammoth cavecave artdark cavesmall cavecave entrancelarge cavegreat cave

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • cave batnounCompound term

    Drab yellowish big-eared bat that lives in caves.

  • cave dwellernounCompound term

    Someone who lives in a cave.

  • cave inverbCompound term

    Break down, literally or metaphorically.

  • cave mannounCompound term

    Someone who lives in a cave.

  • cave myotisnounCompound term

    Small bat of southwest United States that lives in caves etc.

  • fingal's cavenounCompound term

    A large cave with basaltic pillars on Staffa island in Scotland.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • cavemannounRelated term

    Someone who lives in a cave.

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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.