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halcyon

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

Calm, undisturbed, peaceful.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

halseeuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhælsiən

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.

noun

  1. A mythical bird said to breed at the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea and to have the power of calming the winds and waves

  2. The dead body of such a bird, said in Tudor times to act as a weather vane when hung from a beam.

adjective

  1. figurative

    Calm, undisturbed, peaceful, serene.

  2. Pertaining to the halcyon or kingfisher.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A mythical bird said to breed at the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea and to have the power of calming the winds and waves

Used this way, halcyon 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.

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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.