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inhibit

verb

Simple meaning

To hold in or hold back.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihnhibuht

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪnˈhɪbət

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. transitive

    To hold in or hold back; to keep in check; restrain.

  2. philippines

    To recuse.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To hold in or hold back; to keep in check; restrain.

Used this way, inhibit 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 inhibit

  • “His father's cold and distant demeanor inhibited him emotionally.”verb
  • “Contact between the young was inhibited by strict social customs.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

inhibit growthinhibit cellinhibit proteininhibit furtherinhibit dnainhibit plateletcompletely inhibitdirectly inhibit

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • inhibitedadjectiveInflected form

    Held back or restrained or prevented.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • inhibitornounPerson or profession · specialist

    A substance that retards or stops an activity.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • ace inhibitornounRelated term

    An antihypertensive drug that blocks the formation of angiotensin II in the kidney, leading to relaxation of the arteries.

  • reverse transcriptase inhibitornounRelated term

    An antiviral drug that inhibits the action of reverse transcriptase in retroviruses such as HIV.

  • rust inhibitornounRelated term

    Antioxidant that inhibits the formation of rust.

  • angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitornounRelated term

    An antihypertensive drug that blocks the formation of angiotensin II in the kidney, leading to relaxation of the arteries.

  • monoamine oxidase inhibitornounRelated term

    Any of a group of antidepressant drugs that inhibit the action of monoamine oxidase in the brain and so allow monoamines to accumulate.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to hold in or hold back

curbsuppressArchaic

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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.