organ
noun
Simple meaning
The larger part of an organism, composed of tissues that perform similar functions.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
awrguhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɔɹɡən
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
The larger part of an organism, composed of tissues that perform similar functions.
by extension
A body of an organization dedicated to the performing of certain functions.
music
A musical instrument that has multiple pipes which play when a key is pressed (the pipe organ), or an electronic instrument designed to replicate such.
A government organization; agency; authority.
An official magazine, newsletter, or similar publication of an organization.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The larger part of an organism, composed of tissues that perform similar functions.
Used this way, organ is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- 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
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
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.
More ways to use organ
- “The Census Bureau is an organ of the Commerce Department.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Edible viscera of a butchered animal.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A person who plays an organ.
A living thing that has (or can develop) the ability to act or function independently.
Relating or belonging to the class of chemical compounds having a carbon basis.
Formed into a structured or coherent whole, particularly on a large scale.
As an important constituent.
Create (as an entity).
Bring order and organization to.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Someone from whom an organ is taken for transplantation.
A street musician who plays a hand organ or hurdy-gurdy.
A gallery occupied by a church organ.
The hearing organ of the inner ear.
The part of the ear that is responsible for sensations of sound.
Any of the organs involved in speech production.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Disorder caused by a detectable physiological or structural change in an organ.
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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.