harassment
noun
Simple meaning
Tormenting by continued persistent attacks and criticism.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
herasmuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
hɚˈæsmənt
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 act of tormenting by continued persistent attacks and criticism
Persistent attacks and criticism causing worry and distress.
military
The use of repeated small-scale attacks to wear down an enemy force.
Deliberate pestering or intimidation.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of tormenting by continued persistent attacks and criticism
Used this way, harassment is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- 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 harassment
- “So great was his harassment that he wanted to destroy his tormentors.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Unwelcome sexual behavior by a supervisor toward an employee.
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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.