contain
verb
Simple meaning
Hold back, as of a danger or an enemy.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhntaynSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kənˈteɪn
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.
verb
Hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of
transitive
To include as a part.
Include or contain; have as a component
Contain or hold; have within
transitive
To hold inside.
transitive
To put constraints upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of
Used this way, contain is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- comprise , a specialist term, precise but narrower
- take , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Any object that can be used to hold things (especially a large metal boxlike object of standardized dimensions that can be loaded from one form of transport to another).
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A policy of creating strategic alliances in order to check the expansion of a hostile power or ideology or to force it to negotiate peacefully.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A cargo ship designed to hold containerized cargoes.
A cargo ship designed to hold containerized cargoes.
A dispenser that holds a substance under pressure and that can release it as a fine spray (usually by means of a propellant gas).
A large container for freight.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “contain” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.