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gilded

verb

Form of gild , past tense of gild.

Simple meaning

To cover with a thin layer of gold.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

gildid

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɡɪldɪd

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.

verb

  1. past tense of gild

    To cover with a thin layer of gold; to cover with gold leaf.

  2. past tense of gild

    To give a bright or pleasing aspect to.

  3. past tense of gild

    To give a brilliant colour or flush to one's face; (also) to make appear drunk.

  4. past tense of gild

    To adorn.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To cover with a thin layer of gold; to cover with gold leaf.

Used this way, gilded 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
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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.

gilded bronzegilded woodgilded youthgilded silvergilded framegilded coppergilded domerichly gilded

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • gilded flickernounCompound term

    Southwestern United States bird like the yellow-shafted flicker but lacking the red neck.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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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.