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pouch

noun · verb

Simple meaning

An organic pocket in which a marsupial carries its young.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

powch
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpaʊtʃ

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. zoology

    An organic pocket in which a marsupial carries its young.

  2. A small bag usually closed with a drawstring.

  3. Any pocket or bag-shaped object, such as a cheek pouch.

  4. A cyst or sac containing fluid.

  5. A bulkhead in the hold of a vessel, to prevent grain etc. from shifting.

  6. anatomy

    Saclike structure in any of various animals (as a marsupial or gopher or pelican)

verb

  1. of fowls and fish

    To swallow.

  2. transitive

    To enclose within a pouch.

  3. transitive

    To transport within a pouch, especially a diplomatic pouch.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
General and technical use

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: An organic pocket in which a marsupial carries its young.

Used this way, pouch 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 pouch

  • “The beggar pouched the coin.”verb
  • “We pouched the encryption device to our embassy in Beijing.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Small

small pouch

Enclose / transport

diplomatic pouch

Pocket

cheek pouch

Saclike

leather pouch

Other combinations

tobacco pouchbrood pouchblind pouchpharyngeal pouch

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • pouched mammalnounCompound term

    Mammals of which the females have a pouch (the marsupium) containing the teats where the young are fed and carried.

  • pouched molenounCompound term

    Small burrowing Australian marsupial that resembles a mole.

  • pouched mousenounCompound term

    Any of numerous small sharp-nosed insectivorous marsupials superficially resembling mice or rats.

  • pouched ratnounCompound term

    Burrowing rodent of the family Geomyidae having large external cheek pouches.

  • human remains pouchnounCompound term

    A bag in which the body of a dead soldier is placed.

  • mail pouchnounCompound term

    Pouch used in the shipment of mail.

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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.