containment
noun
Simple meaning
A policy of creating strategic alliances to check the expansion of a hostile power or ideology or to force it to negotiate peacefully.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhntaynmuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kənˈteɪnmənt
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
The act of containing; keeping something from spreading
“The containment of the AIDS epidemic.”
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
“Containment of communist expansion was a central principle of United States' foreign policy from 1947 to the 1975.”
uncountablecountable
A policy of checking the expansion of a hostile foreign power by creating alliances with other states; especially the foreign policy strategy of the United States in the early years of the Cold War.
uncountable
The state of being contained.
countable
A physical system designed to prevent the accidental release of radioactive or other dangerous materials from a nuclear reactor or industrial plant.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of containing; keeping something from spreading
Used this way, containment is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The containment of the AIDS epidemic.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “containment of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: containment of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Policynoun
“Containment of communist expansion was a central principle of United States' foreign policy from 1947 to the 1975.”
Containingnoun
“The containment of the AIDS epidemic.”
More ways to use containment
- “The containment of the AIDS epidemic.”noun
- “Containment of communist expansion was a central principle of United States' foreign policy from 1947 to the 1975.”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.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
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).
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A strategy of defense in cases of bioterrorism.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- wildfirenoun
- leakagenoun
- spillverb
- infectiousadjective
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.