howler
noun
Simple meaning
A very bad mistake or an embarrassing blunder.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
howlerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhaʊlɚ
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
That which howls, especially an animal such as a wolf or a howler monkey.
slang
A serious accident (especially to come a howler or go a howler; compare come a cropper).
slang
A painfully obvious mistake.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: That which howls, especially an animal such as a wolf or a howler monkey.
Used this way, howler 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
Nearby words
- howler monkey , rarer, so it draws attention
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.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A long loud emotional utterance.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Monkey of tropical South American forests having a loud howling cry.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: that which howls
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.