detail
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Something small enough to escape casual notice.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
deetaylSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdiːteɪl
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
Something small enough to escape casual notice.
“Note this fine detail in the lower left corner.”
An individual feature, fact, or other item, considered separately from the whole of which it is a part.
Something considered trivial enough to ignore.
“I don't concern myself with the details of accounting.”
A profusion of details.
“This etching is full of fine detail.”
A person's name, address and other personal information.
“The arresting officer asked the suspect for his details.”
A narrative which relates minute points; an account which dwells on particulars.
verb
To clean carefully (particularly of road vehicles) (always pronounced. /ˈdiːteɪl/)
“We need to have the minivan detailed.”
To assign to a particular task
To explain in detail.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Something small enough to escape casual notice.
Used this way, detail is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“Note this fine detail in the lower left corner.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Mild
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “detail in …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: detail in …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Smallnoun
“Note this fine detail in the lower left corner.”
Considerednoun
“I don't concern myself with the details of accounting.”
Profusionnoun
“This etching is full of fine detail.”
Person'snoun
“The arresting officer asked the suspect for his details.”
More ways to use detail
- “Several of the details are similar.”noun
- “It was perfect in all details.”noun
- “The essay contained too much detail.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
True confidential information.
An individualized description of a particular instance.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A computer file containing relatively transient data about a particular data processing task.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: something small enough to escape casual notice
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What Does It Mean Here?
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.