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congest

verb

Simple meaning

Become or cause to become obstructed.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kuhnjehst

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

kənˈdʒɛst

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.

verb

  1. Become or cause to become obstructed

  2. intransitive

    To become blocked or obstructed

  3. transitive

    To hinder or block the passage of something moving, for example a fluid, mixture, traffic, people, etc. (due to an excess of this or due to a partial or complete obstruction), resulting in overfilling or overcrowding.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Typical Use
Rare

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Become or cause to become obstructed

Used this way, congest 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
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • clog up , 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

How this word naturally appears with others.

congest heartfurther congest

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • congestiveadjectiveDerived adjective

    Relating to or affected by an abnormal collection of blood or other fluid.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: become or cause to become obstructed

foulclogchokeclog upRare

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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.