convulsion
noun
Simple meaning
Violent uncontrollable contractions of muscles.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhnvuhlshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kənˈvʌlʃən
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
Violent uncontrollable contractions of muscles
A violent disturbance
“The convulsions of the stock market.”
medicine
An intense, paroxysmal, involuntary muscular contraction.
Violent turmoil.
An uncontrolled fit, as of laughter; a paroxysm.
Hysteric in nature.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Violent uncontrollable contractions of muscles
Used this way, convulsion is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It comes across as direct, sometimes bluntly so.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Blunt and forceful
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use convulsion
- “The convulsions of the stock market.”noun
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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.