prairie
noun
Simple meaning
An extensive area of relatively flat grassland with few, if any.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
prehreeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɹɛɹi
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 extensive area of relatively flat grassland with few, if any, trees, especially in North America.
A number of places in the United States
A number of townships in the United States, listed under Prairie Township.
The Great Plains of North America.
A rural town in the Shire of Flinders, Queensland, Australia.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An extensive area of relatively flat grassland with few, if any, trees, especially in North America.
Used this way, prairie 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 prairie
- “Wildflowers bloom beautifully across the open prairie in the spring.”noun
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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.