dune
noun
Simple meaning
A ridge of sand created by the wind.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
doonIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdun
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
geomorphology
A ridge of sand created by the wind; found in deserts or near lakes and oceans
geomorphology
A ridge or hill of sand piled up by currents of wind or water.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: A ridge of sand created by the wind; found in deserts or near lakes and oceans
Used this way, dune 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
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use dune
- “We climbed to the top of a big sand dune at the beach.”noun
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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 recreational vehicle with large tires used on beaches or sand dunes.
Bicycling or motorcycling on sand dunes.
A dune grass of the Pacific seacoast used as a sand binder.
Lightly hairy rhizomatous perennial having aromatic feathery leaves and stems bearing open clusters of small buttonlike yellow flowers.
A ridge of sand created by the wind.
Densely hairy plant with rayless flowers.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: ridge of sand created by the wind
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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.