garbage
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
Useless or disposable material.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
gahrbijSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡɑɹbɪdʒ
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
Useless or disposable material; waste material of any kind.
A place or receptacle for waste material.
A receptacle where waste can be discarded
“She tossed the moldy bread into the garbage.”
Food that is discarded (as from a kitchen)
Something or someone worthless.
Nonsense; gibberish.
adjective
informal
Bad, crap, shitty
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Useless or disposable material; waste material of any kind.
Used this way, garbage is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- 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 garbage
- “She tossed the moldy bread into the garbage.”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 bin that holds rubbish until it is collected.
Someone employed to collect and dispose of refuse.
The collection and removal of garbage.
Someone employed to collect and dispose of refuse.
A kitchen appliance for disposing of garbage.
Eat a large amount of food quickly.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: useless or disposable material
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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.