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dry

adjective · noun · verb

Simple meaning

Free from liquid or moisture.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dry
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈdɹaɪ

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.

adjective

  1. Free from liquid or moisture; lacking natural or normal moisture or depleted of water; or no longer wet

  2. Lacking moisture or volatile components

  3. Unable to produce a liquid, as water, (petrochemistry) oil, or (agriculture) milk.

  4. Free from or lacking alcohol or alcoholic beverages.

  5. Free from or lacking embellishment or sweetness, particularly

  6. masonry

    Built without or lacking mortar.

noun

  1. us

    A prohibitionist (of alcoholic beverages).

  2. Australia

    An area of waterless country.

  3. Unsweetened ginger ale; dry ginger.

  4. The process by which something is dried.

  5. An area with little or no rain, or sheltered from it.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To lose moisture.

  2. Remove the moisture from and make dry

  3. transitivefigurative

    To exhaust; to cause to run dry.

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: Free from liquid or moisture; lacking natural or normal moisture or depleted of water; or no longer wet

Used this way, dry 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

Nearby words

  • teetotal , rarer, so it draws attention

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.

dry seasondry weightdry landdry matterdry mouthdry cleaningdry airdry weather

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • dry-eyedadjectiveCompound term

    Free from tears.

  • dry-dockverbCompound term

    Maneuver (a ship) into a drydock.

  • blow dryernounCompound term

    A hand-held electric blower that can blow warm air onto the hair.

  • dry-bulb thermometernounCompound term

    An ordinary thermometer with a dry bulb.

  • dry cleanverbCompound term

    Clean with chemical agents.

  • dry cerealnounCompound term

    A cereal that is not heated before serving.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

adjective

Sense: free from liquid or moisture

waterlessthirstywithered

noun

Sense: prohibitionist (of alcoholic beverages)

prohibitionistRare

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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.