mechanic
noun
Simple meaning
Someone who builds or repairs machinery.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
muhkanikSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
məˈkænɪk
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
Someone who builds or repairs machinery, a technician; now specifically, someone who works with and repairs the mechanical parts of a motor vehicle, aircraft or similar.
A device, method or means; a function.
video gamestabletop games
A function, rule or other implementation that dictates gameplay; a ludeme, a feature.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Someone who builds or repairs machinery, a technician; now specifically, someone who works with and repairs the mechanical parts of a motor vehicle, aircraft or similar.
Used this way, mechanic is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is an engineering use: it is a working term used for accuracy on the job.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
- Science
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- automobile mechanic , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use mechanic
- “My mechanic fixed the car's engine problem quickly and efficiently.”
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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.
The branch of physics concerned with the motion of bodies in a frame of reference.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The atomic process that occurs during a chemical reaction.
Using (or as if using) mechanisms or tools or devices.
In a mechanical manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Someone whose occupation is repairing and maintaining automobiles.
The branch of astronomy concerned with the application of Newton's laws of motion to the motions of heavenly bodies.
The branch of mechanics based on Newton's laws of motion.
Study of the mechanics of fluids.
The branch of mechanics based on Newton's laws of motion.
The branch of quantum physics that accounts for matter at the atomic level.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- automotiveadjective
- drivernoun
- motorcyclenoun
- workernoun
- carnoun
- pilotnoun
- mechanicaladjective
- bicyclenoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: someone who builds or repairs machinery or a technician
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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.