friends
noun
Form of friend , plural of friend.
Simple meaning
A person, usually someone other than a family member, spouse or lover, whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
frehndzIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɹɛndz
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
plural of friend
A person, typically someone other than a family member, spouse or lover, whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection.
plural of friendeuphemistic
A lover; a boyfriend or girlfriend.
plural of friend
An associate who provides cooperation or assistance
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person, typically someone other than a family member, spouse or lover, whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection.
Used this way, friends is a reasonably familiar word with a mildly favourable edge. It turns up most in business or professional and family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Business/professional
- Family/home
- Relationships
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.
A person you know well and regard with affection and trust.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Related to A person, typically someone other than a family member, spouse or lover, whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A Christian sect founded by George Fox about 1660.
A Christian sect founded by George Fox about 1660.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.