national science foundation
noun · n
Simple meaning
An independent agency of the federal government responsible for the promotion of progress in science and engineering by supporting programs in research and education.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nashuhnuhlsyuhnsfowndayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈnæʃənəlsaɪənsfaʊndeɪʃən
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
An independent agency of the federal government responsible for the promotion of progress in science and engineering by supporting programs in research and education
n
The U.S. National Science Foundation is an independent agency of the United States federal government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An independent agency of the federal government responsible for the promotion of progress in science and engineering by supporting programs in research and education
Used this way, national science foundation 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
- Academic writing
- Government/politics
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.