personality
noun
Simple meaning
A set of non-physical psychological and social qualities that make one person distinct from another.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
persuhnalihteeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɚsəˈnælɪti
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
Of people, a set of non-physical psychological and social qualities that make one person distinct from another.
Of people, charisma; qualities that make a person stand out from the crowd.
Of inanimate or abstract things, a set of qualities that make something distinctive or interesting.
A celebrity, especially one with a strong media presence (e.g. an actor, singer or sports player).
An assumed role or manner of behavior.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of people, a set of non-physical psychological and social qualities that make one person distinct from another.
Used this way, personality 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.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
As yourself.
Make personal or more personal.
Make personal or more personal.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A questionnaire that is supposed to yield a description of a person's personality traits.
A questionnaire that is supposed to yield a description of a person's personality traits.
Any test that is intended to assess personality.
Inflexible and maladaptive patterns of behavior.
A personality characterized by meticulous neatness and suspicion and reserve.
A personality disorder characterized by amorality and lack of affect.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Concerning or affecting a particular person or his or her private life and personality.
The distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity.
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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.