firearm
noun
Simple meaning
A personal weapon that uses explosive powder to propel a projectile often made of lead.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fyerahrmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfaɪɚɑɹm
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 personal weapon that uses explosive powder to propel a projectile often made of lead.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: A personal weapon that uses explosive powder to propel a projectile often made of lead.
Used this way, firearm 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 firearm
- “He wore his firearm in a shoulder holster.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A firearm that reloads itself and keeps firing until the trigger is released.
The law enforcement and tax collection agency of the Treasury Department that enforces federal laws concerning alcohol and tobacco products and firearms and explosives and arson.
A firearm that can fire several rounds without reloading.
An autoloader that fires only one shot at each pull of the trigger.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- ammunitionnoun
- cartridgenoun
- shotgunnoun
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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.