frontier
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A wilderness at the edge of a settled area of a country.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fruhntirSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
fɹənˈtɪɹ
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
A wilderness at the edge of a settled area of a country
The part of a country which borders or faces another country or unsettled region.
The most advanced or recent version of something; the leading edge.
A rural municipality on the US border in south-west Saskatchewan, which includes the village; in full, the Rural Municipality of Frontier No. 19.
verb
intransitive
To live as pioneers on frontier territory.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A wilderness at the edge of a settled area of a country
Used this way, frontier is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- 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 frontier
- “He worked at the frontier of brain science.”noun
- “The individualism of the frontier in Andrew Jackson's day.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A settlement on the frontier of civilization.
The border area where Argentina and Brazil and Paraguay meet.
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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.