fasting
noun
Simple meaning
Abstinence or mortification for religious reasons.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fastingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfæstɪŋ
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
Abstinence or mortification for religious reasons, especially abstinence from food.
Abstinence from food, limiting caloric intake, for medical or health reasons, dieting.
Abstaining from food
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Abstinence or mortification for religious reasons, especially abstinence from food.
Used this way, fasting is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
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.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Acting or moving or capable of acting or moving quickly.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A day designated for fasting.
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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.