conventional
adjective
Simple meaning
Following accepted customs and proprieties.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhnvehnshuhnuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kənˈvɛnʃənəl
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.
adjective
Pertaining to a convention, as in following generally accepted principles, methods and behaviour.
Following accepted customs and proprieties
Banal, trite, hackneyed, unoriginal or clichéd.
Ordinary, commonplace.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Pertaining to a convention, as in following generally accepted principles, methods and behaviour.
Used this way, conventional 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
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use conventional
- “Conventional wisdom.”adjective
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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.
In a conventional manner.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: pertaining to a convention
Antonyms
Sense: pertaining to a convention
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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.