institute
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An organization founded to promote a cause.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
instuhtootSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɪnstətut
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
An organization founded to promote a cause
An institution of learning; a college, especially for technical subjects
The building housing such an institution.
verb
transitive
To begin or initiate (something); to found.
To nominate; to appoint.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An organization founded to promote a cause
Used this way, institute 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.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An engineering university in Cambridge.
The law enforcement agency that is the research and development branch of the Department of Justice.
An agency in the Technology Administration that makes measurements and sets standards as needed by industry or government programs.
An agency in the Department of Health and Human Services whose mission is to employ science in the pursuit of knowledge to improve human health.
A technical school offering instruction in many industrial arts and applied sciences.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to begin or initiate (something)
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.