firm
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
A business partnership.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
furmIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɝm
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
ukbusiness
A business partnership; the name under which it trades.
businesseconomics
A business enterprise, however organized.
UKbusiness
The members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments
slang
A criminal gang, especially based around football hooliganism.
adjective
Steadfast, secure, solid (in position)
Mentally resistant to hurt or stress.
Not frivolous or fallacious; trustworthy; solid; dependable.
Fixed (in opinion).
Insistent upon something, not accepting dissent.
Durable, rigid (material state).
verb
transitive
To make compact or resistant to pressure; solidify.
Become taut or tauter
“Your muscles will firm when you exercise regularly.”
intransitive
To improve after decline.
intransitiveAustralia
To shorten (of betting odds).
transitivecolloquial
To grit one's teeth and bear; to push through something unpleasant.
transitiveukslang
To select (a higher education institution) as one's preferred choice, so as to enrol automatically if one's grades match the conditional offer.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A business partnership; the name under which it trades.
Used this way, firm is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.
- 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
- Business/professional
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.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The muscle tone of healthy tissue.
With resolute determination.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Arrange firmly.
Eggs beaten with milk or cream and cooked until set.
A chisel with a thin blade for woodworking.
Refuse to abandon one's opinion or belief.
A financial institution that sells insurance.
A financial institution that sells shares to individuals and invests in securities issued by other companies.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
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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.