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freshman

noun

Simple meaning

A person entering the first year of an institution.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

frehshmuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈfɹɛʃmən

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. uscanadaphilippines

    A person (of either sex) entering the first year of an institution, especially a high school (ninth grade for US, grade 9 for Canada, grade 7 for Philippines), a university, or legislative body

  2. USCanadaPhilippines

    A first-year undergraduate

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A person (of either sex) entering the first year of an institution, especially a high school (ninth grade for US, grade 9 for Canada, grade 7 for Philippines), a university, or legislative body

Used this way, freshman is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in education or classroom contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Education/classroom

Nearby words

  • fresher , used mainly in Regional English

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use freshman

  • “The freshman student eagerly explored the university campus.”

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: person (of either sex) entering the first year of an institution

fresherRegional

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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.