customs
noun
Form of custom , plural of custom.
Simple meaning
The duties or taxes imposed on imported or exported goods.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhstuhmzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkʌstəmz
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
in the plural
The duties or taxes imposed on imported or exported goods.
in the singular or uncountable
The government department or agency that is authorised to collect the taxes imposed on imported goods.
The process of going through customs checks at a border checkpoint.
The location at a border checkpoint where customs checks are carried out.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (in the plural) The duties or taxes imposed on imported or exported goods.
Used this way, customs is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in ethics or values contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Ethics/values
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use customs
- “We passed through customs quickly after arriving in the country.”
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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.