desiccant
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A substance that promotes drying.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dehsuhkuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɛsəkənt
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
A substance that promotes drying (e.g., calcium oxide absorbs water and is used to remove moisture)
A substance (such as calcium oxide or silica gel) that is used as a drying agent because of its high affinity for water.
adjective
Causing dryness.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A substance that promotes drying (e.g., calcium oxide absorbs water and is used to remove moisture)
Used this way, desiccant 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
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- drying agent , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.