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clean and jerk

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Lifting the barbell from the floor to a resting position across the front of the shoulders.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kleenandjurk

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkliˈnændˈdʒɝk

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. weightlifting

    The act of lifting the barbell from the floor to a resting position across the front of the shoulders (the clean phase), pausing, and thrusting the barbell over the head to a stationary position in one movement (the jerk phase). The normal technique for both parts of this act involves propelling the barbell upwards, quickly lowering the torso, and then straightening the legs.

verb

  1. weightlifting

    To lift and manipulate a weight in this fashion.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (weightlifting) The act of lifting the barbell from the floor to a resting position across the front of the shoulders (the clean phase), pausing, and thrusting the barbell over the head to a stationary position in one movement (the jerk phase). The normal technique for both parts of this act involves propelling the barbell upwards, quickly lowering the torso, and then straightening the legs.

Used this way, clean and jerk 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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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.