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junk

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Miscellaneous items of little value.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

juhngk
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈdʒʌŋk

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. Miscellaneous items of little value, especially discarded or unwanted items.

  2. attributive

    Material or resources of poor quality or low value, especially resources that lack commercial value.

  3. Nonsense; gibberish.

  4. Pieces of old cable or cordage, used for making gaskets, mats, swabs, etc., and when picked to pieces, forming oakum for filling the seams of ships.

verb

  1. transitiveinformal

    To find something for very little money (meaning derived from the term junkshop)

  2. transitiveinformal

    To throw away.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Miscellaneous items of little value, especially discarded or unwanted items.

Used this way, junk is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
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 junk

  • “Please clean out your closet; it's full of old junk you don't need.”noun

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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.