lunge
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A sudden forward movement.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
luhnjIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlʌndʒ
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
A long rope or flat web line, more commonly referred to as a lunge line, approximately 20–30 feet long, attached to the bridle, lungeing cavesson, or halter of a horse and used to control the animal while lungeing.
A sudden forward movement, especially with a sword.
fencing
An attacking thrust made with one foot forward and the back leg straight and with the sword arm outstretched forward
An exercise performed by stepping forward one leg while kneeling with the other leg, then returning to a standing position.
A fish, the namaycush.
verb
ambitransitive
To (cause to) make a sudden forward movement (present participle: lunging).
transitive
To longe or work a horse in a circle around a handler (present participle: lunging or lungeing).
ambitransitive
Make a thrusting forward movement
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A sudden forward movement, especially with a sword.
Used this way, lunge is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It comes across as direct, sometimes bluntly so.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Sudden and forceful
- Usage feel
- Blunt and forceful
Nearby words
- hurtle , rarer, so it draws attention
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.