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dental

adjective

Simple meaning

Related to the branch of medicine dealing with the anatomy and development and diseases of the teeth.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dehntuhl

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈdɛntəl

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. dentistryrelational

    Of or relating to dentistry

  2. relational

    Of or concerning the teeth.

  3. phonetics

    Of or relating to the teeth

  4. phonetics

    Articulated with the tip of the tongue touching the upper front teeth or with the blade of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge, so that the tip of the tongue rests near the teeth.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Of or relating to dentistry

Used this way, dental 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
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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

More ways to use dental

  • “Regular dental check-ups are important for maintaining good oral health.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

dental cariesdental schooldental surgerydental practicedental plaquedental assistantdental hygienistdental association

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • dentistnounPerson or profession

    A person qualified to practice dentistry.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • dental flossnounCompound term

    A soft thread for cleaning the spaces between the teeth.

  • dental goldnounCompound term

    An alloy of gold used in dentistry.

  • dental hygienistnounCompound term

    Someone trained to provide preventive dental service (cleaning teeth or taking x-rays).

  • dental implantnounCompound term

    An implant that replaces a natural tooth.

  • dental medicinenounCompound term

    The branch of medicine dealing with the anatomy and development and diseases of the teeth.

  • dental orthopaedicsnounCompound term

    The branch of dentistry dealing with the prevention or correction of irregularities of the teeth.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • denturenounRelated term

    A dental appliance that artificially replaces missing teeth.

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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.