galley
noun
Simple meaning
The cookroom or kitchen and cooking apparatus of a vessel or aircraft.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
galeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡæli
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
nautical
The cookroom or kitchen and cooking apparatus of a vessel or aircraft; sometimes on merchant vessels called the caboose.
british
A light, open boat used on the Thames by customhouse officers, press gangs, and also for pleasure.
An oblong oven or muffle with a battery of retorts; a gallery furnace.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The cookroom or kitchen and cooking apparatus of a vessel or aircraft; sometimes on merchant vessels called the caboose.
Used this way, galley is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a nautical use: it is standard at sea and largely unfamiliar ashore.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Sailing/maritime
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- cookhouse , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: cookroom
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