excoriate
verb
Simple meaning
To strongly condemn or criticize.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehkskawreeaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɛksˈkɔɹieɪt
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.
verb
transitivefiguratively
To strongly condemn or criticize.
Tear or wear off the skin or make sore by abrading
transitive
To wear off the skin of; to chafe.
transitive
To remove the skin and/or fur of, to flay, to skin
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Typical Use
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To strongly condemn or criticize.
Used this way, excoriate 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
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.