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institutional

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Of, about, characteristic of, or organized along the lines of an institution.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihnstihtooshuhnuhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪnstɪˈtuʃənəl

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.

adjective

  1. Of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or organized along the lines of an institution.

  2. Organized as or forming an institution

  3. Arising from the practice of an institution.

  4. Instituted by authority.

  5. Elementary; rudimentary.

noun

  1. A community where the majority of inhabitants work at an institution (as opposed to industry or trade), or one such inhabitant.

  2. A client that is an organization rather than an individual.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or organized along the lines of an institution.

Used this way, institutional 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 institutional

  • “Institutional policy.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

institutional frameworkinstitutional investorsinstitutional racisminstitutional structureinstitutional developmentinstitutional settinginstitutional contextinstitutional reform

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Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: of or pertaining to or characteristic of

noninstitutionalRare

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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.