curve
verb · noun
Simple meaning
A simple figure containing no straight portions and no angles.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kurvIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɝv
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.
verb
Bend or cause to bend
intransitive
To bend or turn gradually from a given direction.
transitive
To bend; to crook.
Turn sharply; change direction abruptly
transitive
To cause to swerve from a straight course.
transitiveslang
To reject, to turn down romantic advances.
noun
A simple figure containing no straight portions and no angles; a curved line.
A grading system based on the scale of performance of a group used to normalize a right-skewed grade distribution (with more lower scores) into a bell curve, so that more can receive higher grades, regardless of their actual knowledge of the subject.
A gentle bend, such as in a road.
informalusually in the plural
The attractive shape of a woman's body.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A simple figure containing no straight portions and no angles; a curved line.
Used this way, curve 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
Nearby words
- curve ball , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use curve
- “The car slowed down around the sharp curve in the road.”
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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.