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cheese

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A dairy product made from curdled or cultured milk.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

cheez
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtʃiz

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. countable

    A piece of cheese, especially one moulded into a large round shape during manufacture.

  2. uncountable

    A dairy product made from curdled or cultured milk.

  3. A mass of pomace, or ground apples, pressed together in the shape of a cheese.

  4. A low curtsey; so called on account of the cheese shape assumed by a woman's dress when she stoops after extending the skirts by a rapid gyration.

  5. A substance resembling cream cheese, such as lemon cheese

  6. uncountableuk

    A thick variety of jam (fruit preserve), as distinguished from a thinner variety (sometimes called jelly)

verb

  1. To prepare curds for making cheese.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A piece of cheese, especially one moulded into a large round shape during manufacture.

Used this way, cheese 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 cheese

  • “Would you like some cheese on your sandwich for lunch?”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Mass / low

cheese saucesome cheese

Substance

cream cheeseblue cheese

Dangerous

parmesan cheese

Other combinations

cottage cheesegoat cheesemozzarella cheese

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • cheese pizzanounCompound term

    Pizza with lots of cheese.

  • cheese pressnounCompound term

    A press for shaping cheese curd.

  • cheese rindnounCompound term

    The rind of a cheese.

  • cheese saucenounCompound term

    White sauce with grated cheese.

  • cheese soufflenounCompound term

    Puffy dish of cheese and eggs (whites beaten separately) and white sauce.

  • cheese spreadnounCompound term

    Spread made of cheese mixed with butter or cream or cream cheese and seasonings.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • cheesecakenounRelated term

    Made with sweetened cream cheese and eggs and cream baked in a crumb crust.

  • cheeseburgernounRelated term

    A hamburger with melted cheese on it.

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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.