detergent
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
Any non-soap cleaning agent.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihturjuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈtɝdʒənt
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
Any non-soap cleaning agent, especially a synthetic surfactant.
adjective
Synonym of cleansing.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any non-soap cleaning agent, especially a synthetic surfactant.
Used this way, detergent 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
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 substance added to soaps or detergents to increase their cleansing action.
A class of synthetic detergents in which the surface-active part of the molecule is the cation.
A low-sudsing detergent designed for use in dishwashers.
A low-sudsing detergent designed for use in dishwashers.
Any of various detergents designed for use in a washing machine for clothing.
A detergent in liquid form.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.