massage

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Rubbing and pressing a person's body to help them relax

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

muhsahzh

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

məˈsɑʒ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

The action of rubbing, kneading or hitting someone's body, to help the person relax, prepare for muscular action (as in contact sports) or to relieve aches.
The action of rubbing or kneading anything.
Kneading and rubbing parts of the body to increase circulation and promote relaxation

verb

transitive
To rub and knead (someone's body or a part of a body), to perform a massage on (somebody).
transitive
To rub or knead anything.
transitive
To manipulate (data, a document etc.) to make it more presentable or more convenient to work with.
transitive
To falsify (data or accounts).
Give a massage to

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate
Frequency: Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The action of rubbing, kneading or hitting someone's body, to help the person relax, prepare for muscular action (as in contact sports) or to relieve aches.

Used this way, massage is a reasonably familiar word 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: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

Sports
News/reporting
Everyday conversation

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Rubbing / kneading

body massagefoot massage

Other combinations

massage therapycardiac massagemassage therapistmassage parlorgentle massagetherapeutic massage

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

massagernounInflected form
Someone who rubs or kneads parts of the body to stimulate circulation and promote relaxation.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

massage parlornounCompound term
A place where illicit sex is available under the guise of therapeutic massage.
cardiac massagenounCompound term
An emergency procedure that employs rhythmic compression of the heart (either through the chest wall or, during surgery, directly to the heart) in an attempt to maintain circulation during…
heart massagenounCompound term
An emergency procedure that employs rhythmic compression of the heart (either through the chest wall or, during surgery, directly to the heart) in an attempt to maintain circulation during…
swedish massagenounCompound term
Massage combined with a system of active and passive exercises for the muscles and joints.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to rub and knead (someone's body

rub downRare

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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.