kangaroo
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
Any of several herbivorous leaping marsupials of Australia and New Guinea having large powerful hind legs and a long thick tail.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kanggerooSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kæŋɡɚˈu
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
Any of several herbivorous leaping marsupials of Australia and New Guinea having large powerful hind legs and a long thick tail
A member of the Macropodidae family of large marsupials with strong hind legs for hopping, native to Australia.
canadaattributive
A hooded jacket with a front pocket, usually of fleece material, a kangaroo jacket.
verb
To practice kangaroo care on an infant; to hold a premature infant against the skin.
intransitive
To move like a kangaroo.
intransitive
To hunt kangaroo.
adjective
Of or relating to Australia.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Any of several herbivorous leaping marsupials of Australia and New Guinea having large powerful hind legs and a long thick tail
Used this way, kangaroo 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
- Moderate
- 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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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.