indulge
verb
Simple meaning
To give way to.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihnduhljSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪnˈdʌldʒ
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.
verb
To give way to (a habit or temptation); to not oppose or restrain.
transitive
To satisfy the wishes or whims of.
Give free rein to
“The writer indulged in metaphorical language.”
To grant as by favour; to bestow in concession, or in compliance with a wish or request.
To grant an extension to the deadline of a payment.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To give way to (a habit or temptation); to not oppose or restrain.
Used this way, indulge 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
- No strong connotation
- 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 indulge
- “The writer indulged in metaphorical language.”verb
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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.
The act of indulging or gratifying a desire.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An inability to resist the gratification of whims and desires.
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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.