pond
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An inland body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is smaller than a lake.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pahndIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɑnd
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
An inland body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is smaller than a lake.
“The pond was too small for sailing.”
An inland body of standing water of any size that is fed by springs rather than by a river.
informal
Chiefly in across the pond: the Atlantic Ocean.
Alternative letter-case form of the pond ("the Atlantic Ocean").
verb
transitive
To make into a pond; to collect, as water, in a pond by damming.
transitive
To block the flow of water so that it can escape only through evaporation or seepage; to dam.
intransitive
To form a pond; to pool.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An inland body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is smaller than a lake.
Used this way, pond is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The pond was too small for sailing.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Mild
- How common
- 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 pond
- “The pond was too small for sailing.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Reflect deeply on a subject.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A water lily having large leaves and showy fragrant flowers that float on the water.
Large three-needled pine of sandy swamps of southeastern United States.
Free-floating freshwater green algae.
An aquatic fungus of genus Synchytriaceae that is parasitic on pond scum.
Long-legged bug that skims about on the surface of water.
Small evergreen tree of tropical America with edible fruit.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Plants that grow in ponds and slow streams.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to make into a pond
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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.