flesh
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The skin of a human or animal.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
flehshIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈflɛʃ
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
The skin of a human or animal.
The soft tissue of the body of a vertebrate: mainly muscle tissue and fat
Animal tissue regarded as food; meat (but sometimes excluding fish).
The human body as a physical entity.
The soft, often edible, parts of fruits or vegetables.
A yellowish pink color; the color of some Caucasian human skin.
verb
transitive
To reward (a hound, bird of prey etc.) with flesh of the animal killed, to excite it for further hunting; to train (an animal) to have an appetite for flesh.
Remove adhering flesh from (hides) when preparing leather manufacture
To remove the flesh from the skin during the making of leather.
transitive
To glut.
transitive
To put flesh on; to fatten.
transitive
To bury (something, especially a weapon) in flesh.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The soft tissue of the body of a vertebrate: mainly muscle tissue and fat
Used this way, flesh 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 flesh
- “The surgeon repaired the damaged flesh on the patient's arm.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Related to The skin of a human or animal.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Fly whose larvae feed on carrion or the flesh of living animals.
Make fat or plump.
A wound that does not damage important internal organs or shatter any bones.
The swollen tissue around a healing wound or ulcer.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: skin of a human or animal
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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.