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delicate

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Easily damaged or needing gentle care.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dehluhkuht

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈdɛləkət

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Easily damaged or requiring careful handling.

  2. Characterized by a fine structure or thin lines.

  3. Refined; gentle; scrupulous not to trespass or offend; considerate; said of manners, conduct, or feelings.

  4. Exquisitely fine and subtle and pleasing; susceptible to injury

  5. Pleasing to the senses; refined; adapted to please an elegant or cultivated taste.

  6. Slight and shapely; lovely; graceful.

noun

  1. A delicate item of clothing, especially underwear or lingerie.

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: Easily damaged or requiring careful handling.

Used this way, delicate is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It quietly approves while staying precise.

Emotional tone
Positive
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Gentle
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Careful and exacting
Usage feel
Precise and approving

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use delicate

  • “A delicate violin passage.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Weak

delicate health

Highly

extremely delicate

Other combinations

delicate matterdelicate taskdelicate situationdelicate questiondelicate subjectdelicate nature

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • delicatelyadverbDerived adverb

    In a delicate manner.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

adjective

Sense: easily damaged or requiring careful handling

difficult

noun

Sense: delicate item of clothing or especially underwear

gossamer

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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.