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dressing

noun

Simple meaning

Putting on clothes.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

drehsing

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈdɹɛsɪŋ

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.

noun

  1. The activity of getting dressed; putting on clothes

  2. cooking

    A sauce, especially a cold one for salads.

  3. The stuffing of fowls, pigs, etc.

  4. Gum, starch, etc., used in stiffening or finishing silk, linen, and other fabrics.

  5. An ornamental finish, such as a moulding around doors, windows, or on a ceiling.

  6. Something added to the soil as a fertilizer etc.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

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More ways to use dressing

  • “I prefer a light vinaigrette dressing on my salad.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Ornamental

dressing roomwindow dressing

Savory

salad dressing

Other combinations

dressing tabledressing gowntop dressingdressing stationfinished dressing

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • dressverbBase word

    Put on clothes.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • dressernounPerson or profession · specialist

    Furniture with drawers for keeping clothes.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • dressing casenounCompound term

    A small piece of luggage for carrying brushes and bottles and toilet articles while traveling.

  • dressing downnounCompound term

    A severe scolding.

  • dressing gownnounCompound term

    A robe worn before dressing or while lounging.

  • dressing roomnounCompound term

    A room in which you can change clothes.

  • dressing sacknounCompound term

    A woman's loose jacket.

  • dressing sacquenounCompound term

    A woman's loose jacket.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: activity of getting dressed

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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.