mirror
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A smooth surface, usually made of glass with reflective material painted on the underside.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mihrerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmɪɹɚ
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
A smooth surface, usually made of glass with reflective material painted on the underside, that reflects light so as to give an image of what is in front of it.
figuratively
An object, person, or event that reflects or gives a picture of another.
A mirror carp.
verb
Reflect or resemble
“The plane crash in Milan mirrored the attack in the World Trade Center.”
transitive
To act as a reflection of, either by being identical to, or by being identical but reversed.
transitive
Of an event, activity, behavior, to be identical to; to be a copy of; to imitate closely.
Reflect as if in a mirror
“The smallest pond at night mirrors the firmament above.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A smooth surface, usually made of glass with reflective material painted on the underside, that reflects light so as to give an image of what is in front of it.
Used this way, mirror 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 mirror
- “The smallest pond at night mirrors the firmament above.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Domestic carp with some large shining scales.
A likeness in which left and right are reversed.
The relation of opposition between crystals or molecules that are reflections of one another.
Parity is conserved in a universe in which the laws of physics are the same in a right-handed system of coordinates as in a left-handed system.
A mirror intended to be held in the hand.
Car mirror that reflects the view at side and behind car.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.