counseling
noun
Simple meaning
Assistance in the resolution of personal difficulties.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kownsuhlingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkaʊnsəlɪŋ
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
Assistance (especially from a professional) in the resolution of personal difficulties.
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: Assistance (especially from a professional) in the resolution of personal difficulties.
Used this way, counseling 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
- Matter-of-fact
- 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 counseling
- “Seeking counseling helped them improve their communication as a couple.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A lawyer who pleads cases in court.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Someone who gives advice about problems.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Counseling on career opportunities.
Guidance for prospective parents on the likelihood of genetic disorders in their future children.
Counseling on marital problems and disagreements.
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What Does It Mean Here?
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.