chirp
noun · verb
Simple meaning
To make a short, sharp, cheerful note, as of small birds or crickets.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
churpIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtʃɝp
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
A short, sharp or high note or noise, as of a bird or insect.
A sharp sound made by small birds or insects
verb
intransitive
To make a short, sharp, cheerful note, as of small birds or crickets; to chitter; to twitter.
Make high-pitched sounds
“The birds were chirping in the bushes.”
intransitive
To speak in a high-pitched staccato.
canada
To speak rapid insulting comical banter back and forth; to bicker or argue.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A short, sharp or high note or noise, as of a bird or insect.
Used this way, chirp 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
Nearby words
- cheep , rarer, so it draws attention
- tweedle , rarer, so it draws attention
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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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.