discover
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To find or learn something for the first time.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihskuhverSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪsˈkʌvɚ
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.
verb
transitive
To find or learn something for the first time.
Find unexpectedly
transitivechess
To create by moving a piece out of another piece's line of attack.
transitivelaw
To question (a person) as part of discovery in a lawsuit.
noun
us
Discover Card, a brand of credit card.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To find or learn something for the first time.
Used this way, discover 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.
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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.
Someone who is the first to think of or make something.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A check on the opponent's king that is delivered by moving a piece out of the line of attack by a queen or rook or bishop.
Someone who is the first of two or more people to discover something.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The act of discovering something.
Discovering your own individuality.
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What Does It Mean Here?
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.