meaning
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
The denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
meeningSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈminɪŋ
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 denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression, or symbol.
The idea that is intended
“What is the meaning of this proverb?”
The connotation associated with a word, expression, or symbol.
The purpose, value, or significance (of something) beyond the fact of that thing's existence.
of a person's actions
Intention.
adjective
Having a (specified) intention.
Expressing some intention or significance; meaningful.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression, or symbol.
Used this way, meaning 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.
More ways to use meaning
- “What is the meaning of this proverb?”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Mean or intend to express or convey.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The accepted meaning of a word.
The meaning of a word that depends on its role in a sentence.
The meaning of a content word that depends on the nonlinguistic concepts it is used to express.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Having a meaning or purpose.
Having no meaning or direction or purpose.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: having a (specified) intention
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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.