declare
verb
Simple meaning
To assert or announce formally, officially, explicitly.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihklehrSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪkˈlɛɹ
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
transitiveintransitive
To assert or announce formally, officially, explicitly, or emphatically.
Announce publicly or officially
transitive
To inform government customs or taxation officials of goods one is importing or of income, expenses, or other circumstances affecting one's taxes.
State firmly
“He declared that he was innocent.”
transitiveprogramming
To explicitly establish the existence of (a variable, function, etc.) without necessarily describing its content.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To assert or announce formally, officially, explicitly, or emphatically.
Used this way, declare is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It suits considered writing and prepared speech.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Official and authoritative
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use declare
- “He declared that he was innocent.”verb
- “Do you have anything to declare?”verb
- “His wife declared at once for moving to the West Coast.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Made known or openly avowed.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A statement that is emphatic and explicit (spoken or written).
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Ask (someone) to marry you.
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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.