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coffee

noun · verb · adjective

Simple meaning

A serving of this beverage.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kahfee

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IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɑfi

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. uncountable

    A beverage made by infusing the beans of the coffee plant in hot water.

  2. The seeds of the plant used to make coffee, called 'beans' due to their shape.

  3. countable

    A serving of this beverage.

  4. The powder made by roasting and grinding the seeds.

  5. A medium brown to dark-brown color

  6. One of 67 counties in Alabama, United States. County seat: Elba.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To drink coffee.

  2. transitive

    To give coffee to.

adjective

  1. Of a table: a small, low table suitable for people in lounge seating to put coffee cups on.

  2. Of a pale brown colour, like that of milk coffee.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

More ways to use coffee

  • “He ordered a cup of coffee.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Beverage / seeds

coffee cupcoffee beans

Other combinations

coffee tablecoffee shopcoffee houseinstant coffeecoffee potsome coffee

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • java

    Coffee in general.

  • chocolate

    A beverage made from cocoa powder and milk and sugar.

  • coffee bean

    The seed of a tropical plant of the genus Coffea, that is prepared by drying, roasting and grinding for making the….

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • coffee berrynounCompound term

    A seed of the coffee tree.

  • coffee blightnounCompound term

    A blight affecting the coffee plant.

  • coffee breaknounCompound term

    A snack taken during a break in the work day.

  • coffee cakenounCompound term

    A cake or sweet bread usually served with coffee.

  • coffee cannounCompound term

    A can for storing ground coffee.

  • coffee cappuccinonounCompound term

    Equal parts of espresso and hot milk topped with cinnamon and nutmeg and usually whipped cream.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • coffea arabicanounRelated term

    Shrubby tree of northeastern tropical Africa widely cultivated in tropical or near tropical regions for its seed which form most of the commercial coffee.

  • coffea canephoranounRelated term

    Native to West Africa but grown in Java and elsewhere.

  • coffea robustanounRelated term

    Native to West Africa but grown in Java and elsewhere.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: beverage made by infusing the beans of the coffee plant in hot water

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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.