multilateral
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Having many parts or sides.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
muhltihlateruhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
məltɪˈlætɚəl
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.
adjective
Having many parts or sides
Having many sides or points of view.
Having many physical sides.
politics
Involving three or more parties or nations.
noun
politics
A group with representatives from three or more parties or nations.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Having many parts or sides
Used this way, multilateral 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
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- multipartite , rarer, so it draws attention
- quadripartite , 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 multilateral
- “The multilateral agreement involved several countries working together.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Having three sides.
Having four sides.
Having four sides or faces.
Having a triangle as a base.
Having three corners.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: having many parts or sides
Antonyms
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What Does It Mean Here?
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.