feel

verb · noun

Simple meaning

Be conscious of a physical, mental, or emotional state.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

feel

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈfil

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

Be conscious of a physical, mental, or emotional state
“My cold is gone--I feel fine today.”
heading
To sense or think emotionally or judgmentally.
transitive
To experience an emotion or other mental state about.
intransitive
To search by sense of touch.
intransitive
To receive information by touch or by any neurons other than those responsible for sight, smell, taste, or hearing.
transitive
To think, believe, or have an impression concerning.

noun

A perception experienced mainly or solely through the sense of touch.
A vague mental impression.
A vague understanding.
An intuitive ability.
An act of fondling.
chiefly usslang
A feeling; an emotion.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A1 · Beginner
Frequency: Very Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To experience an emotion or other mental state about.

Used this way, feel 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.

More ways to use feel

“It feels nice to be home again.”verb
“My cold is gone--I feel fine today.”verb

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

feel outverbCompound term
Try to learn someone's opinions and intentions.
feel likeverbCompound term
Have an inclination for something or some activity.
feel like a millionverbCompound term
Be in excellent health and spirits.
feel forverbCompound term
Share the suffering of.
feel like a million dollarsverbCompound term
Be in excellent health and spirits.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

guilt feelingsnounRelated term
Remorse caused by feeling responsible for some offense.
sinking feelingnounRelated term
A feeling caused by uneasiness or apprehension.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

feelingnoun
sensenoun
comfortableadjective
uncomfortableadjective
feelingsnoun

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: perception experienced mainly

sense

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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.