glass
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An amorphous solid, often transparent substance, usually made by melting silica sand with different additives.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
glassIPA pronunciation (US)
ɡlæs
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
usually uncountable
An amorphous solid, often transparent substance, usually made by melting silica sand with various additives (for most purposes, a mixture of soda, potash and lime is added).
countableuncountableby extension
Any amorphous solid (one without a regular crystal lattice).
countable
A vessel from which one drinks, especially one made of glass, plastic, or similar translucent or semi-translucent material.
attributivein names of species
Transparent or translucent.
A mirror; usually a ladies' dressing mirror
A telescope.
verb
transitive
To smooth or polish (leather, etc.), by rubbing it with a glass burnisher.
Scan (game in the forest) with binoculars
transitive
To view through an optical instrument such as binoculars.
transitiveukcolloquial
To strike (someone), particularly in the face, with a drinking glass with the intent of causing injury.
transitive
To apply fibreglass to.
Put in a glass container
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An amorphous solid, often transparent substance, usually made by melting silica sand with various additives (for most purposes, a mixture of soda, potash and lime is added).
Used this way, glass 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
Nearby words
- drinking glass , rarer, so it draws attention
- glassful , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use glass
- “Please fill the glass with water, I'm very thirsty.”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.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Optical instrument consisting of a frame that holds a pair of lenses for correcting defective vision.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
United States physicist who invented the bubble chamber to study subatomic particles (born in 1926).
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Become glassy or take on a glass-like appearance.
Snakelike lizard of Europe and Asia and North America with vestigial hind limbs and the ability to regenerate its long fragile tail.
A siliceous sponge (with glassy spicules) of the class Hyalospongiae.
Glass fibers spun and massed into bundles resembling wool.
Enclose with glass.
A very thin fiber made of glass that functions as a waveguide for light.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
An article of tableware made of glass.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: amorphous solid or often transparent substance
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