countervailing duty
noun
Simple meaning
A duty or surtax levied on an imported article to offset an excise or inland revenue tax placed upon articles of the same class manufactured domestically.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kowntervaylihngdooteeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkaʊntɚveɪlɪŋˈduti
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
A duty levied on an imported article to offset the unfair price advantage it holds due to a subsidy paid to producers or exporters by the government of the exporting country if such imports cause or threaten injury to a domestic industry.
A duty or surtax levied on an imported article to offset an excise or inland revenue tax placed upon articles of the same class manufactured domestically.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: A duty levied on an imported article to offset the unfair price advantage it holds due to a subsidy paid to producers or exporters by the government of the exporting country if such imports cause or threaten injury to a domestic industry.
Used this way, countervailing duty is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in government or politics and ethics or values contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
- Ethics/values
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.