outage
noun
Simple meaning
A temporary suspension of operation.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
owtuhjSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈaʊtədʒ
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 temporary suspension of operation (as of computers)
“There will be a network outage from 8 to 10 a.m.”
A temporary suspension of operation, especially of electrical power supply.
The amount of something (as whiskey or oil) lost in storage or transportation
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A temporary suspension of operation (as of computers)
Used this way, outage is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“There will be a network outage from 8 to 10 a.m.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- 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 outage
- “There will be a network outage from 8 to 10 a.m.”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.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Equipment failure resulting when the supply of power fails.
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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.