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pedigree

noun · adjective · verb

Simple meaning

Ancestry of a purebred animal.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pehduhgree

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpɛdəɡɹi

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.

noun

  1. Ancestry of a purebred animal

  2. The ancestry of a domesticated animal, especially a dog or horse.

  3. uncountable

    Good breeding or ancestry.

  4. A person's ancestral history; ancestry, lineage.

  5. A chart, list, or record of ancestors, to show breeding, especially distinguished breeding.

  6. The history or provenance of an idea, custom etc.

adjective

  1. Purebred.

  2. Having a pedigree.

verb

  1. transitive

    To determine the pedigree of (an animal).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Ancestry of a purebred animal

Used this way, pedigree 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
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

pedigree chartlong pedigreefamily pedigreepedigree analysishistorical pedigreepedigree data

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: ancestry of a purebred animal

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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.