impressive
adjective
Simple meaning
Good enough to make people admire it.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihmprehsivSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪmpˈɹɛsɪv
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.
adjective
Making, or tending to make, a positive impression; having power to impress.
Making a strong or vivid impression
Appealing.
Capable of being impressed.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Making, or tending to make, a positive impression; having power to impress.
Used this way, impressive is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- 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 impressive
- “An impressive ceremony.”adjective
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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.
Aphasia characterized by fluent but meaningless speech and severe impairment of the ability understand spoken or written words.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: making or or tending to make
Antonyms
Sense: making or or tending to make
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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.