inspiration
noun
Simple meaning
An elevating or stimulating influence upon the intellect, emotions or creativity.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihnsperayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪnspɚˈeɪʃən
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
The act or process of an elevating or stimulating influence upon the intellect, emotions or creativity.
A person, object, or situation which quickens or stimulates an influence upon the intellect, emotions or creativity.
The act of inhaling; the drawing in of air (or other gases) as in breathing
A new idea, especially one which arises suddenly and is clever or creative.
A supernatural divine influence on the prophets, apostles, or sacred writers, by which they were qualified to communicate moral or religious truth with authority; a supernatural influence which qualifies people to receive and communicate divine truth; also, the truth communicated.
countable
A single inward breath (intake of air).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act or process of an elevating or stimulating influence upon the intellect, emotions or creativity.
Used this way, inspiration 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.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: act or process of an elevating
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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.