pester
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To bother, harass, or annoy persistently.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pehsterSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɛstɚ
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.
verb
transitive
To bother, harass, or annoy persistently.
noun
A bother or nuisance.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To bother, harass, or annoy persistently.
Used this way, pester is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
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.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
To persistently bother (someone, or a group of people) physically or psychologically when such behaviour is illegal….
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten an infected animal.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to bother or harass or or annoy persistently
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.