looking
noun · verb
Form of look , present participle of look.
Simple meaning
Turning your eyes toward something to see it; also searching for something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
luukingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlʊkɪŋ
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
The act of one who looks; a glance.
verb
present participle of look
Perceive with attention; direct one's gaze towards
“She looked over the expanse of land.”
present participle of look
To try to see, to pay attention to with one's eyes.
As the last part of compound adjectives: relating to or having the appearance of.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of one who looks; a glance.
Used this way, looking 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
- Not strongly marked
- 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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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The act of directing the eyes toward something and perceiving it visually.
The act of searching visually.
A mirror.
Small tree of coastal regions of Old World tropics whose leaves are silvery beneath.
Large evergreen tree of India and Burma whose leaves are silvery beneath.
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What Does It Mean Here?
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.