embarrassment
noun
Simple meaning
A person or thing which is the cause of humiliation to another.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihmbehruhsmuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪmˈbɛɹəsmənt
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
A person or thing which is the cause of humiliation to another.
Some event that causes someone to be embarrassed
“The outcome of the vote was an embarrassment for the liberals.”
The state of being embarrassed (usually by some financial inadequacy)
A large collection of good or valuable things, especially one that exceeds requirements or causes some sort of hindrance.
A state of discomfort arising from bashfulness or consciousness of having violated a social rule; humiliation.
A state of confusion; hesitation; uncertainty.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person or thing which is the cause of humiliation to another.
Used this way, embarrassment 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 embarrassment
- “The outcome of the vote was an embarrassment for the liberals.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Large
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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.