insecurity

noun

Simple meaning

A lack of confidence in oneself.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihnsihkyoorihtee

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪnsɪkˈjʊɹɪti

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.

noun

A lack of confidence in oneself.
A lack of security; uncertainty.
The state of being subject to danger or injury

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Uncommon
Formality: Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A lack of confidence in oneself.

Used this way, insecurity 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.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

food insecurityeconomic insecurityjob insecuritysocial insecuritypersonal insecurityfinancial insecuritygeneral insecurity

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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.