mar
verb · noun · adjective
Simple meaning
To damage or spoil something, making it look worse
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mahrIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmɑɹ
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
transitive
To spoil; to ruin; to scathe; to damage.
noun
Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line.
The month following February and preceding April
A blemish.
An earldom in the Scottish peerage.
A title of respect in Syriac, given to all saints and also used before the Christian names of bishops.
An aspect ratio in which a motion picture is formatted to fit a specific type of screen (historically 1.33:1), as opposed to original aspect ratio.
adjective
Associated with Maroon culture, communities or peoples.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To spoil; to ruin; to scathe; to damage.
Used this way, mar is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- 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.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to spoil
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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.