freshen
verb
Simple meaning
To become cool.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
frehshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɹɛʃən
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.
verb
Become or make oneself fresh again
“She freshened up after the tennis game.”
To become not salty, to lose its salinity. (of water)
To become cool.
intransitiveof wind
To become stronger.
Make (to feel) fresh
To refresh; to revive; to renew.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Become or make oneself fresh again
Used this way, freshen is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“She freshened up after the tennis game.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- 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 freshen
- “She freshened up after the tennis game.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Anything that freshens.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: become or make oneself fresh again
Antonyms
Sense: become or make oneself fresh again
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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.