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cheap

adjective · verb · adverb

Simple meaning

Relatively low in price or charging low prices.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

cheep
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtʃip

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.

adjective

  1. Relatively low in price or charging low prices

    “It would have been cheap at twice the price.”

  2. Low or reduced in price.

  3. Of poor quality.

  4. Of little worth.

verb

  1. transitive

    To bargain for; chaffer for; ask the price of; offer a price for; cheapen.

  2. transitive

    To buy; purchase.

  3. transitive

    To sell.

adverb

  1. Cheaply.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Relatively low in price or charging low prices

Used this way, cheap is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Heard in a sentence
“It would have been cheap at twice the price.”
Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
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.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

cheap moneycheap laborcheap labourrelatively cheapcheap editioncheap foodcheap landcheap rate

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • cheaplyadverbDerived adverb

    In a stingy manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • cheap shotnounCompound term

    An unnecessarily aggressive and unfair remark directed at a defenseless person.

  • cheap moneynounCompound term

    Credit available at low rates of interest.

  • cheap-jacknounCompound term

    A seller of shoddy goods.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: relatively low in price or charging low prices

inferior

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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.