gown
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Outerwear made up of a long flowing garment used for official or ceremonial occasions.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
gownIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡaʊn
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
A woman's ordinary outer dress, such as a calico or silk gown.
Outerwear consisting of a long flowing garment used for official or ceremonial occasions
A loose, flowing upper garment.
A loose wrapper worn by gentlemen within doors; a dressing gown.
Any sort of dress or garb.
The official robe of certain professionals, clerics, and scholars, such as university students and officers, barristers, judges, etc.
verb
To dress in a gown, to don or garb with a gown.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A woman's ordinary outer dress, such as a calico or silk gown.
Used this way, gown 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 gown
- “The relations between town and gown are always sensitive.”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 gown worn by the bride at a wedding.
A gown for evening wear.
A robe worn before dressing or while lounging.
A gown for evening wear.
Black academic gown widely used by Protestant clergymen.
Protective garment worn by surgeons during operations.
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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.