flu
noun
Simple meaning
A common illness caused by a virus, with fever, aches and a cough.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
flooIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈflu
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
Influenza.
informal
Stomach flu.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: An acute febrile highly contagious viral disease
Used this way, flu is a specialist word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in medicine or healthcare contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use flu
- “I caught the flu and had to stay home from school.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: influenza
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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.