graft
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A branch or portion of a tree growing from such a shoot.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
graftIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡɹæft
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
horticulture
A small shoot or scion of a tree inserted in another tree, the stock of which is to support and nourish it. The two unite and become one tree, but the graft determines the kind of fruit.
horticulture
A branch or portion of a tree growing from such a shoot.
The depth of the blade of a digging tool such as a spade or shovel.
A narrow spade used in digging drainage trenches.
surgery
A portion of living tissue used in the operation of autoplasty.
uncountable
Corruption in official life.
verb
transitive
To insert (a graft) in a branch or stem of another tree; to propagate by insertion in another stock; also, to insert a graft upon.
intransitive
To insert scions (grafts) from one tree, or kind of tree, etc., into another; to practice grafting.
transitive
To join (one thing) to another as if by grafting, so as to bring about a close union.
To obtain illegal gain from bribery or similar corrupt practices.
colloquialintransitive
To work hard.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (horticulture) A small shoot or scion of a tree inserted in another tree, the stock of which is to support and nourish it. The two unite and become one tree, but the graft determines the kind of fruit.
Used this way, graft is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Mild
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- transplant , a specialist term, precise but narrower
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.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The act of grafting something onto something else.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A piece of skin taken from a donor area and surgically grafted at the site of an injury or burn.
A surgical procedure in which part or all of a damaged or diseased cornea is replaced by healthy corneal tissue from a donor.
Open-heart surgery in which the rib cage is opened and a section of a blood vessel is grafted from the aorta to the coronary artery to bypass the blocked section of the coronary artery and…
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to insert (a graft) in a branch
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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.