ground
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
The surface of the Earth.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
growndIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡɹaʊnd
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
The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground.
The solid part of the earth's surface
Material in the top layer of the surface of the earth in which plants can grow (especially with reference to its quality or use)
A connection between an electrical device and a large conducting body, such as the earth (which is taken to be at zero voltage)
countable
The bottom of a body of water.
Soil, earth.
verb
transitive
To punish, especially a child or teenager, by forcing them to stay at home and/or give up certain privileges.
transitive
To forbid (an aircraft or pilot) to fly.
To give a basic education in a particular subject; to instruct in elements or first principles.
To found; to fix or set, as on a foundation, reason, or principle; to furnish a ground for; to fix firmly.
intransitive
To run aground; to strike the bottom and remain fixed.
philippines
To electrocute.
adjective
Crushed, or reduced to small particles.
Processed by grinding.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground.
Used this way, ground 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
- earth , used mainly in Regional English
- undercoat , rarer, so it draws attention
- terra firma , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- anchor , 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.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Land, as opposed to water or air.
The part of Earth which is not covered by oceans or other bodies of water.
The ground, land (as opposed to the sky or sea).
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Your basis for belief or disbelief.
Education or instruction in the fundamentals of a field of knowledge.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The crew of technicians and mechanics who service aircraft on the ground.
Apparent increase in aerodynamic lift experienced by an aircraft flying close to the ground.
A craft capable of moving over water or land on a cushion of air created by jet engines.
An explosive mine hidden underground.
A variety of club moss.
A forest fire that burns the humus.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The ceremonial breaking of the ground to formally begin a construction project.
The ceremonial breaking of the ground to formally begin a construction project.
If the ground hog emerges and sees his shadow on this day, there will be 6 more weeks of winter.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
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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.