kettle
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A metal pot for stewing or boiling.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kehtuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɛtəl
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
cooking
A metal pot for stewing or boiling; usually has a lid
cooking
A vessel for boiling a liquid or cooking food, usually metal and equipped with a lid.
A vessel or appliance used to boil water for the preparation of hot beverages and other foodstuffs.
An instance of kettling; a group of protesters or rioters confined in a limited area.
A bucket for holding a quantity of paint during the painting process.
A kind of fishweir resembling a wattle or fence.
verb
intransitive
Of a boiler: to make a whistling sound like the boiling of a kettle, indicative of various types of fault.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A metal pot for stewing or boiling; usually has a lid
Used this way, kettle is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a food and cooking use: everyday in kitchens and recipes.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Cooking/food
- Everyday conversation
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use kettle
- “I put the kettle on the stove to boil water for tea.”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.