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grow

verb

Simple meaning

Become larger, greater.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

groh
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɡɹoʊ

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. ergative

    Become larger, greater, or bigger; expand or gain

  2. ergative

    To become larger, to increase in magnitude.

  3. transitive

    To cause or allow something to become bigger, especially to cultivate plants.

  4. Become attached by or as if by the process of growth

    “The tree trunks had grown together.”

  5. Develop and reach maturity; undergo maturation

  6. intransitive

    To develop, to mature.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Become larger, greater, or bigger; expand or gain

Used this way, grow 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
Moderate
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 grow

  • “A long tail began to grow from his backside.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

grow rapidlygrow well

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • growingnounInflected form

    The process of an individual organism growing organically.

  • growernounInflected form

    Someone concerned with the science or art or business of cultivating the soil.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • growing painsnounCompound term

    Pain in muscles or joints sometimes experienced by children and often attributed to rapid growth.

  • grow upverbCompound term

    Become an adult.

  • grow oververbCompound term

    Grow beyond or across.

  • growing seasonnounCompound term

    The season during which a crop grows best.

  • make growverbCompound term

    Cause to grow and differentiate in ways conforming to its natural development.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • growthnounRelated term

    The process of an individual organism growing organically.

  • growth industrynounRelated term

    An industry that is growing rapidly.

  • growth ringnounRelated term

    An annual formation of wood in plants as they grow.

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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.