foul play
noun
Simple meaning
Unfair or dishonest behavior.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fowlplaySay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfaʊlpˈleɪ
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
Unfair or dishonest behavior (especially involving violence)
Unfair, unethical, or criminal behavior, especially of a malicious or violent nature.
Any violation of rules.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Unfair or dishonest behavior (especially involving violence)
Used this way, foul play is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Deceptive or misleading
- 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.