guide
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Someone who shows the way by leading or advising.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
gydIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡaɪd
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
Someone who guides, especially someone hired to show people around a place or an institution and offer information and explanation, or to lead them through dangerous terrain.
Someone who shows the way by leading or advising
Something that offers basic information or instruction
Someone employed to conduct others
Someone who can find paths through unexplored territory
A device that guides part of a machine, or guides motion or action.
verb
To serve as a guide for someone or something; to lead or direct in a way; to conduct in a course or path.
To steer or navigate, especially a ship or as a pilot.
To exert control or influence over someone or something.
To supervise the education or training of someone.
Use as a guide
“They had the lights to guide on.”
intransitive
To act as a guide.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Someone who guides, especially someone hired to show people around a place or an institution and offer information and explanation, or to lead them through dangerous terrain.
Used this way, guide is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. This sense is used where position and measurement matter — travel, weather and flight — so it reads as factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Geography/travel
- Weather/aviation
- Technical/specialist writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use guide
- “They had the lights to guide on.”verb
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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.
Subject to guidance or control especially after launching.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Something that provides direction or advice as to a decision or course of action.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Use as a guide.
A rope used to guide the movement of the load of a crane.
A word printed at the top of the page of a dictionary or other reference book to indicate the first or last item on that page.
A dog trained to guide the blind.
A rocket-propelled missile whose path can be controlled during flight either by radio signals or by internal homing devices.
A cruiser that carries guided missiles.
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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.