plunge
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To dive, leap or rush.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pluhnjIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈplʌndʒ
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
intransitive
To dive, leap or rush (into water or some liquid); to submerge oneself.
Immerse briefly into a liquid so as to wet, coat, or saturate
transitive
To thrust into liquid, or into any penetrable substance; to immerse.
figurativelytransitive
To cast, stab or throw deep and fast into some thing, state, condition or action.
Thrust or throw into
Fall abruptly
“It plunged to the bottom of the well.”
noun
The act of plunging or submerging.
A dive, leap, rush, or pitch into (into water).
figuratively
The act of pitching or throwing oneself headlong or violently forward, like an unruly horse.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To dive, leap or rush (into water or some liquid); to submerge oneself.
Used this way, plunge 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
Nearby words
- plunk , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use plunge
- “It plunged to the bottom of the well.”verb
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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.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Someone who risks losses for the possibility of considerable gains.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.