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pacify

verb

Simple meaning

Fight violence and try to establish peace in.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pasuhfy

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpæsəfaɪ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. Fight violence and try to establish peace in (a location)

    “The U.N. troops are working to pacify Bosnia.”

  2. transitive

    To bring peace to (a place or situation), by ending war, fighting, violence, anger or agitation.

  3. transitive

    To appease (someone).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Rare

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Fight violence and try to establish peace in (a location)

Used this way, pacify is a common word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It comes across as direct, sometimes bluntly so.

Heard in a sentence
“The U.N. troops are working to pacify Bosnia.”
Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Gentle
How common
Common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Blunt and forceful

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use pacify

  • “The U.N. troops are working to pacify Bosnia.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

pacify ireland

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • pacifiernounInflected form

    Someone who tries to bring peace.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • pacifistnounPerson or profession

    Someone opposed to violence as a means of settling disputes.

  • pacificnounDerived noun

    The largest ocean in the world.

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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.