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picket

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A protester positioned outside an office, workplace etc.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pikit

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpɪkɪt

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. A protester positioned outside an office, workplace etc. during a strike (usually in plural); also the protest itself.

  2. military

    One of the soldiers or troops placed on a line forward of a position to warn against an enemy advance; or any unit (for example, an aircraft or ship) performing a similar function.

  3. A stake driven into the ground.

  4. A tool in mountaineering that is driven into the snow and used as an anchor or to arrest falls.

verb

  1. intransitive

    To protest, organized by a labour union, typically in front of the location of employment.

  2. transitive

    To enclose or fortify with pickets or pointed stakes.

  3. Fasten with a picket

  4. transitive

    To tether to, or as if to, a picket.

  5. transitive

    To guard, as a camp or road, by an outlying picket.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Uncommon

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A protester positioned outside an office, workplace etc. during a strike (usually in plural); also the protest itself.

Used this way, picket 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.

More ways to use picket

  • “Picket a business to protest the layoffs.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Protester

picket post

Stake / tool

white picket

Soldiers

picket line

Employed

picket guard

Wooden

picket fence

Other combinations

picket boatradar picketpicket duty

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • picket boatnounCompound term

    A boat serving as a picket.

  • picket fencenounCompound term

    A fence made of upright pickets.

  • picket linenounCompound term

    A line of people acting as pickets.

  • picket shipnounCompound term

    A ship serving as a picket.

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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.