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ironing

noun

Simple meaning

Pressing clothes with an iron, such as a steam iron.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

eyeerning

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈaɪɚnɪŋ

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

  1. The act of pressing clothes with an iron, such as a steam iron.

  2. Laundry that has recently been ironed.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The act of pressing clothes with an iron, such as a steam iron.

Used this way, ironing 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.

More ways to use ironing

  • “There was a basketful of ironing to do.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

ironing boardironing clothessome ironingneed ironingironing room

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • ironnounBase word

    A heavy ductile magnetic metallic element.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • ironynounDerived noun

    Witty language used to convey insults or scorn.

  • ironicallyadverbDerived adverb

    Contrary to plan or expectation.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • ironing boardnounCompound term

    Narrow padded board on collapsible supports.

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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.