dog
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The species Canis familiaris, domesticated for thousands of years and of highly variable appearance because of human breeding.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dawgIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɔɡ
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
The species Canis familiaris (sometimes designated Canis lupus familiaris), domesticated for thousands of years and of highly variable appearance because of human breeding.
A mechanical device or support
Any of various mechanical devices for holding, gripping, or fastening something, particularly with a tooth-like projection.
A click or pallet adapted to engage the teeth of a ratchet wheel, to restrain the back action.
Metal supports for logs in a fireplace
A person
verb
Go after with the intent to catch
transitive
To pursue with the intent to catch.
transitive
To follow in an annoying or harassing way.
intransitivetransitive
To intentionally restrict one's productivity as employee; to work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished.
transitiveslang
To criticize.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A mammal of the family Canidae
Used this way, dog is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Family/home
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use dog
- “The dog barked all night.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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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.