comfort
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Something that makes suffering or worry feel better
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhmfertSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkʌmfɚt
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 consolation; something relieving suffering or worry.
Contentment, ease.
A cause of relief or satisfaction.
Something that offers comfort.
A place in the United States
verb
transitive
To relieve the distress or suffering of; to provide comfort to.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A consolation; something relieving suffering or worry.
Used this way, comfort is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Warm and admiring
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
Comfort is emotionally heavy: it suggests deep or lasting feeling, not a passing mood, so it can overstate a small reaction.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use comfort
- “He is a man who enjoys his comfort.”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.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Things that make you comfortable and at ease.
A person who commiserates with someone who has had misfortune.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Providing or experiencing physical well-being or relief (`comfy' is informal).
In mental comfort.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A toilet that is available to the public.
A woman forced into prostitution for Japanese servicemen during World War II.
The temperature range (between 28 and 30 degrees Centigrade) at which the naked human body is able to maintain a heat balance without shivering or sweating.
Food that is simply prepared and gives a sense of wellbeing.
Things that make you comfortable and at ease.
Someone whose comfort is actually discouraging.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Antonyms
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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.