kicker
noun
Simple meaning
A placekicker: a player who kicks the football during free kicks, kick offs, field goals, and extra point tries.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kikerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɪkɚ
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
One who kicks.
American football
A placekicker: a player who kicks the football during free kicks, kick offs, field goals, and extra point tries.
colloquial
An unexpected situation, detail or circumstance, often unpleasant, serving as a punchline or clincher.
informal
A relaxed party.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (American football) A placekicker: a player who kicks the football during free kicks, kick offs, field goals, and extra point tries.
Used this way, kicker is a word tied to one variety of English that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a sporting use: familiar to anyone who follows the game, and puzzling to anyone who does not.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Regional
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Uncommon in everyday speech
Where it naturally appears
- Sports
- News/reporting
- Everyday conversation
Usage note
Mainly used in American English, so it may read as unusual elsewhere.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Drive or propel with the foot.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A kicker who makes a place kick for a goal.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.