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dismiss

verb

Simple meaning

End one's encounter with somebody by causing or permitting the person to leave.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dihsmis

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dɪsˈmɪs

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. End one's encounter with somebody by causing or permitting the person to leave

    “I was dismissed after I gave my report.”

  2. transitive

    To discharge; to end the employment or service of.

  3. transitive

    To reject; to refuse to accept.

  4. transitive

    To order to leave.

  5. transitive

    To invalidate; to treat as unworthy of serious consideration.

  6. transitive

    To send or put away, to discard with disregard, contempt or disdain. (sometimes followed by as).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To discharge; to end the employment or service of.

Used this way, dismiss is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Business/professional

Nearby words

  • sack , more casual, better suited to speech than writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use dismiss

  • “I was dismissed after I gave my report.”verb
  • “She dismissed his advances.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

simply dismisseasily dismiss

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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.