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charge

noun · verb

Simple meaning

An attack in which combatants rush towards an enemy in an try to engage in close combat.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

chahrj
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtʃɑɹdʒ

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. The amount of money levied for a service.

  2. military

    An attack in which combatants rush towards an enemy in an attempt to engage in close combat.

  3. An accusation by a person or organization.

  4. A forceful forward movement.

  5. An official description (by the police or a court) of a crime that somebody may be guilty of.

  6. The scope of someone's responsibility.

verb

  1. Assign a duty, responsibility or obligation to

  2. To assign a duty or responsibility to; to order.

  3. transitive

    To assign (a debit) to an account.

  4. Pay with a credit card; pay with plastic money; postpone payment by recording a purchase as a debt

    “Will you pay cash or charge the purchase?”

  5. transitivechiefly us

    To pay on account, as by using a credit card.

  6. To call to account; to challenge.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: An attack in which combatants rush towards an enemy in an attempt to engage in close combat.

Used this way, charge is a specialist word with a clearly unfavourable pull. This is a military use: it belongs to service and operational language.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Clinical and detached

Where it naturally appears

  • Military
  • Historical writing
  • News/reporting
  • Technical/specialist writing

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 charge

  • “Will you pay cash or charge the purchase?”verb
  • “Will I get charged for this service?”verb
  • “The suspect was charged with murdering his wife.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

take chargepositive chargenegative chargecharge densityspace charge

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • chargedadjectiveInflected form

    Of a particle or body or system.

  • chargernounInflected form

    Formerly a strong swift horse ridden into battle.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • charge cardnounCompound term

    A card (usually plastic) that assures a seller that the person using it has a satisfactory credit rating and that the issuer will see to it that the seller receives payment for the…

  • charge d'affairesnounCompound term

    The official temporarily in charge of a diplomatic mission in the absence of the ambassador.

  • charge-exchange acceleratornounCompound term

    An accelerator in which high-energy ions escape from plasma following charge exchange.

  • charge of quartersnounCompound term

    An enlisted man who handles his unit's administrative matters after hours.

  • charge per unitnounCompound term

    Amount of a charge or payment relative to some basis.

  • charge platenounCompound term

    A card (usually plastic) that assures a seller that the person using it has a satisfactory credit rating and that the issuer will see to it that the seller receives payment for the…

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

noun

Sense: amount of money levied for a service

discharge

verb

Sense: assign a duty or responsibility or obligation to

discharge

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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.