moonshine
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To make homemade alcohol.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
moonshynSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmunʃaɪn
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.
verb
intransitive
To make homemade (especially, illicit) alcohol, especially distilled spirits.
transitive
To make (an ingredient) into such a drink.
noun
informal
High-proof alcohol (especially whiskey) that is often, but not always, produced illegally.
colloquialuncountable
Nonsense.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: High-proof alcohol (especially whiskey) that is often, but not always, produced illegally.
Used this way, moonshine is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Nearby words
- corn liquor , much rarer in everyday speech
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: high-proof alcohol (especially whiskey) that is often
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.