chaff
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
chafIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtʃæf
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
Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant.
figurative
Any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless.
Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.
verb
intransitive
To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
transitive
To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language.
transitive
To cut up (straw or hay) for use as cattle feed.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
Used this way, chaff 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.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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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.