guise
noun
Simple meaning
An external appearance in way or dress.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
gyzIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡaɪz
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
An external appearance in manner or dress; an appropriate indication or expression; a garb; a shape.
A misleading appearance; a cover, a cloak.
A customary way of speaking or acting; a fashion, a manner, a practice (often used formerly in such phrases as "at his own guise"; that is, in his own fashion, to suit himself.)
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An external appearance in manner or dress; an appropriate indication or expression; a garb; a shape.
Used this way, guise 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
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use guise
- “Under the guise of friendship he betrayed them.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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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.