hedging
noun
Simple meaning
Taking a position in one market to offset and balance against the risk adopted by assuming a position in a contrary or opposing market or investment.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hehjingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhɛdʒɪŋ
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
pragmaticscomposition
An intentionally noncommittal or ambiguous statement
“When you say `maybe' you are just hedging.”
finance
The practice of taking a position in one market to offset and balance against the risk adopted by assuming a position in a contrary or opposing market or investment
The act of one who hedges (in various senses).
Any plant used to form a hedge.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The practice of taking a position in one market to offset and balance against the risk adopted by assuming a position in a contrary or opposing market or investment
Used this way, hedging is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a financial use: it has a settled meaning in accounting and business, where precision matters more than colour.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Finance/economics
- Business/professional
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A fence formed by a row of closely planted shrubs or bushes.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
South African shrub having forked spines and plumlike fruit.
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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.