population
noun
Simple meaning
The people living within a political or geographical boundary.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pahpyuhlayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɑpjəˈleɪʃən
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
The people living within a political or geographical boundary.
by extension
The people with a given characteristic.
A count of the number of residents within a political or geographical boundary such as a town, a nation or the world.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The people with a given characteristic.
Used this way, population 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 population
- “They hired hunters to keep down the deer population.”noun
- “The population seemed to be well fed and clothed.”noun
- “People come and go, but the population of this town has remained approximately constant for the past decade.”noun
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Someone who advocates the rights of the common people over those of the elite.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The commission of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations that is concerned with population control.
Control over the growth of population.
Increase in the number of people who inhabit a territory or state.
A chart showing the number of people as a function of their ages.
A scientist who studies the growth and density of populations and their vital statistics.
A change in the relative numbers of the different groups of individuals making up a population.
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “population” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.