incontinence
noun
Simple meaning
Indiscipline with regard to sensuous pleasures.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihnkahntuhnuhnsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪnˈkɑntənəns
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
Indiscipline with regard to sensuous pleasures
Involuntary urination or defecation
dated
Lack of self-restraint, an inability to control oneself; unchastity.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Indiscipline with regard to sensuous pleasures
Used this way, incontinence is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- 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
- Technical/specialist writing
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.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Urinary incontinence that occurs when the bladder is so full that it continually leaks urine.
Urinary incontinence that occurs when involuntary pressure is put on the bladder by coughing or laughing or sneezing or lifting or straining.
Urinary incontinence that is generally attributable to involuntary contracts of the bladder muscle resulting in an urgent need to urinate accompanied by a sudden loss of urine.
Inability to control the flow of urine and involuntary urination.
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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.