detention
noun
Simple meaning
A punishment in which a student must stay at school after others have gone home.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihtehnshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈtɛnʃən
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
pedagogy
A punishment in which a student must stay at school after others have gone home
pedagogy
A punishment given to a student for a minor infraction, typically requiring the student to report to a designated room during recess or outside of school hours to work on homework or perform busywork.
countable
A temporary state of custody or confinement.
law
Confinement of a prisoner awaiting trial.
uncountable
The act of detaining or the state of being detained; hindrance.
A state of being confined (usually for a short time)
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A punishment in which a student must stay at school after others have gone home
Used this way, detention is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It turns up most in education or classroom contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Education/classroom
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.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A storage site (such as a small reservoir) that delays the flow of water downstream.
An institution where juvenile offenders can be held temporarily (usually under the supervision of a juvenile court).
A large cell where prisoners (people awaiting trial or sentence or refugees or illegal immigrants) are confined together temporarily.
A large cell where prisoners (people awaiting trial or sentence or refugees or illegal immigrants) are confined together temporarily.
An institution where juvenile offenders can be held temporarily (usually under the supervision of a juvenile court).
An institution where juvenile offenders can be held temporarily (usually under the supervision of a juvenile court).
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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.