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personal

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Concerning or affecting a particular person or his or her private life and personality.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pursihnil

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpɝsɪnɪl

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.

adjective

  1. Concerning or affecting a particular person or his or her private life and personality

  2. Of or pertaining to a particular person; relating to, or affecting, an individual, or each of many individuals

  3. Pertaining to persons (human beings as opposed to things or animals).

  4. Pertaining to the external or bodily appearance; corporeal; bodily.

  5. Dealing with subjects about which one wishes (or people usually wish) to maintain privacy or discretion; not for public view; sensitive, intimate.

  6. Relating to an individual, their character, conduct, motives, or private affairs, in an invidious and offensive manner

noun

  1. chiefly in the plural

    An advertisement by which an individual attempts to meet others with similar interests.

  2. One's own property or asset

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Concerning or affecting a particular person or his or her private life and personality

Used this way, personal 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
No strong connotation
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 personal

  • “Please keep your personal belongings safe and secure.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Concerning / pertaining

personal lifepersonal identity

Other combinations

personal propertypersonal incomepersonal computerpersonal injurypersonal communicationpersonal experience

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • personal checknounCompound term

    A check drawn against funds deposited in your personal checking account.

  • personal chequenounCompound term

    A check drawn against funds deposited in your personal checking account.

  • personal computernounCompound term

    A small digital computer based on a microprocessor and designed to be used by one person at a time.

  • personal credit linenounCompound term

    The maximum credit that a customer is allowed.

  • A lightweight consumer electronic device that looks like a hand-held computer but instead performs specific tasks.

  • personal effectsnounCompound term

    Property of a personal character that is portable but not used in business.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • personalizeverbRelated term

    Make personal or more personal.

  • personaliseverbRelated term

    Make personal or more personal.

  • Emotional dissociative disorder in which there is loss of contact with your own personal reality accompanied by feelings of unreality and strangeness.

  • Emotional dissociative disorder in which there is loss of contact with your own personal reality accompanied by feelings of unreality and strangeness.

  • Emotional dissociative disorder in which there is loss of contact with your own personal reality accompanied by feelings of unreality and strangeness.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

adjective

Sense: concerning or affecting a particular person or his

noun

Sense: advertisement by which an individual attempts to meet others with similar interests

privateArchaic

Antonyms

adjective

Sense: concerning or affecting a particular person or his

noun

Sense: advertisement by which an individual attempts to meet others with similar interests

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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.