dither
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Make a fuss.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ditherSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɪðɚ
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
Make a fuss; be agitated
figurative
To be uncertain or unable to make a decision; to vacillate, hesitate, or delay.
Act nervously; be undecided; be uncertain
To intentionally add noise to a signal to remove artifacts caused by digitization.
noun
The state of being undecided; indecision; vacillation.
A form of noise intentionally added to remove artifacts caused by digitization.
Trembling, shaking, or shivering.
A state of nervous excitement.
Word at a Glance
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Make a fuss; be agitated
Used this way, dither 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.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A color produced by a pattern of differently colored dots that together simulate the desired color.
A color produced by a pattern of differently colored dots that together simulate the desired color.
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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.