hygiene
noun
Simple meaning
Those conditions and practices that promote and preserve health.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hyjeenSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhaɪdʒin
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
Those conditions and practices that promote and preserve health.
The science concerned with the prevention of illness and maintenance of health
The science of health, its promotion and preservation.
Cleanliness.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Those conditions and practices that promote and preserve health.
Used this way, hygiene 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 hygiene
- “Hygiene is an important consideration in places where food is prepared.”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.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A medical specialist in hygiene.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The branch of psychiatry concerned with psychological methods.
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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.