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gland

noun

Simple meaning

An organ that synthesizes a substance, such as hormones or breast milk, and releases it.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

gland
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɡlænd

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.

noun

  1. zoology

    An organ that synthesizes a substance, such as hormones or breast milk, and releases it, often into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland).

  2. botany

    A secretory structure on the surface of an organ.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: An organ that synthesizes a substance, such as hormones or breast milk, and releases it, often into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland).

Used this way, gland 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 gland

  • “The doctor explained that my thyroid gland was working perfectly.”noun

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.