cliff
noun
Simple meaning
A steep high face of rock.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
klifIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈklɪf
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 steep high face of rock
“He stood on a high cliff overlooking the town.”
A vertical (or nearly vertical) rock face.
figurative
A point beyond which something abruptly fails or decreases in value, performance, etc.
A diminutive of the male given name Clifford or Clifton.
A neighbourhood, The Cliff, in the Metropolitan Borough of Salford, Greater Manchester, England (OS grid ref SD8201).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A steep high face of rock
Used this way, cliff is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“He stood on a high cliff overlooking the town.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- 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 cliff
- “He stood on a high cliff overlooking the town.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Any of several small lithophytic ferns of tropical and warm temperate regions.
Diving into the water from a steep overhanging cliff.
A member of the Anasazi people living in the southwestern United States who built rock or adobe dwellings on ledges in the sides of caves.
A rock and adobe dwelling built on sheltered ledges in the sides of a cliff.
One of the West's most beautiful wildflowers.
Tufted thrift of seacoasts and mountains of north temperate zone.
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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.