foggy bottom
noun
Simple meaning
United States Department of State, which is housed in a building in a low-lying area of Washington near the Potomac River.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fahgeebahtuhmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɑɡiˈbɑtəm
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
United States Department of State, which is housed in a building in a low-lying area of Washington near the Potomac River
A neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States.
US politicsmetonymic
The United States Department of State, whose headquarters are located nearby.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: United States Department of State, which is housed in a building in a low-lying area of Washington near the Potomac River
Used this way, foggy bottom is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Critical but measured
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.