linger
verb
Simple meaning
To stay somewhere longer than needed.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
linggerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɪŋɡɚ
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.
verb
intransitive
To stay or remain in a place or situation, especially as if unwilling to depart or not easily able to do so.
intransitiveidiomaticoften followed by on
To consider or contemplate for a period of time; to engage in analytic thinking or discussion.
intransitive
To remain alive or existent although still proceeding toward death or extinction; to die gradually.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To stay or remain in a place or situation, especially as if unwilling to depart or not easily able to do so.
Used this way, linger is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It keeps things gentle rather than emphatic.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Reluctant or hesitant
- Usage feel
- Understated and gentle
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use linger
- “The shy student lingered in the corner.”verb
- “Her perfume lingered on.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Water chestnut whose spiny fruit has two rather than 4 prongs.
The act of tarrying.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A specialist in linguistics.
Consisting of or related to language.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to stay or remain in a place or situation
Antonyms
Sense: to stay or remain in a place or 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.