earmark
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A mark made or tag attached to the ear of an animal, generally to identify or indicate something about the animal.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
irmahrkSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɪɹmɑɹk
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
chiefly agriculture
A mark made or tag attached to the ear of an animal (chiefly a livestock animal), generally to identify or indicate something about the animal, such as ownership, health or gestation status, etc.
Identification mark on the ear of a domestic animal
figurativefinance
An act of designating certain funds to be used for a specific purpose; specifically (US, politics), a designation by the Congress that certain federal funds be appropriated for a specific project.
figurative
A distinguishing or identifying mark or sign; specifically (archaic), a mark of ownership.
verb
figurative
To designate or set aside (someone or something) for a particular purpose; to allocate.
figurativefinance
Chiefly followed by for: to designate (certain funds) to be used for a specific purpose.
figurative
To put a distinguishing or identifying mark or sign on (something); to make (something) distinctive or identifiable.
chiefly agriculture
To make a mark or attach a tag to the ear of (an animal, chiefly a livestock animal), generally to identify or indicate something about the animal, such as ownership.
figurativeUK
To designate (part of a pension) to be payable to the holder's former spouse or payment when the pension is paid.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A mark made or tag attached to the ear of an animal (chiefly a livestock animal), generally to identify or indicate something about the animal, such as ownership, health or gestation status, etc.
Used this way, earmark 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 earmark
- “I will earmark this money for your research.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: mark made
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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.