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grin

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To draw back the lips and reveal the teeth, in a smile, grimace.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

grin
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɡɹɪn

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. To draw back the lips and reveal the teeth, in a smile, grimace, or snarl

  2. intransitive

    To smile, parting the lips so as to show the teeth.

  3. transitive

    To grin as part of producing a particular facial expression, such as a smile or sneer.

  4. transitive

    To express by grinning.

noun

  1. A smile in which the lips are parted to reveal the teeth.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To draw back the lips and reveal the teeth, in a smile, grimace, or snarl

Used this way, grin 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.

More ways to use grin

  • “Why do you grin? Did I say something funny?”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

silly grin

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • grinningnounInflected form

    A facial expression characterized by turning up the corners of the mouth.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • grindverbRelated term

    Press or grind with a crushing noise.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to draw back the lips and reveal the teeth

smile

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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.