member

noun

Simple meaning

Part of an animal capable of performing a distinct office.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

mehmber

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmɛmbɚ

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

Part of an animal capable of performing a distinct office; an organ; a limb.
A part of a whole.
One who belongs to a group.
One of the persons who compose a social group (especially individuals who have joined and participate in a group organization)
An external body part that projects from the body
A part of a discourse or of a period, sentence, or verse; a clause.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A1 · Beginner
Frequency: Very Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Part of an animal capable of performing a distinct office; an organ; a limb.

Used this way, member 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 member

“Only members will be admitted.”noun

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Belongs / organization

member state

Persons

family member

Other combinations

staff memberfaculty memberboard membernew memberteam memberhonourable member

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

member banknounCompound term
A bank that is a member of the Federal Reserve System.
member of parliamentnounCompound term
An elected member of the British Parliament: a member of the House of Commons.
fellow membernounCompound term
One of the persons who compose a social group (especially individuals who have joined and participate in a group organization).
single-member systemnounCompound term
Based on the principle of having only one member (as of a legislature) selected from each electoral district.
staff membernounCompound term
An employee who is a member of a staff of workers (especially a member of the staff that works for the President of the United States).
structural membernounCompound term
Support that is a constituent part of any structure or building.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

membershipnounRelated term
The body of members of an organization or group.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: part of an animal capable of performing a distinct office

nonmember

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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.