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meander

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To wind or turn in a course or passage.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

meeander

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

miˈændɚ

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.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To wind or turn in a course or passage

  2. transitive

    To wind, turn, or twist; to make flexuous.

  3. intransitive

    To be intricate.

noun

  1. A tortuous or winding journey.

  2. An aimless amble on a winding course

  3. often plural

    One of the turns of a winding, crooked, or involved course.

  4. A river in northern Tasmania, which joins the South Esk.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Rare
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To wind or turn in a course or passage

Used this way, meander 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
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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

More ways to use meander

  • “The stream meandered through the valley.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Wind / aimless

meander belt

Decorative / self

meander line

Other combinations

meander throughmeander alongmeander patternriver meandermeander bendsmeander wavelength

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to wind or turn in a course or passage

wind

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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.