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demeanor

noun

Simple meaning

The social, non-verbal behaviors that are characteristic of a person.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dihmeener

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dɪˈminɚ

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.

noun

  1. American spelling

    The social, non-verbal behaviors (such as body language and facial expressions) that are characteristic of a person.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Uncommon

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (American spelling) The social, non-verbal behaviors (such as body language and facial expressions) that are characteristic of a person.

Used this way, demeanor is a word tied to one variety of English that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. Most speakers understand it but seldom reach for it.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Regional
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Uncommon in everyday speech

Usage note

Mainly used in American English, so it may read as unusual elsewhere.

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

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

whole demeanorcalm demeanorgeneral demeanorprofessional demeanorquiet demeanorserious demeanormodest demeanoroutward demeanor

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Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: social

behaviourdemeanourdeportment

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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.