profile
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The outermost shape, view, or edge of an object.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
prohfylSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɹoʊfaɪl
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
countable
The outermost shape, view, or edge of an object.
countable
The shape, view, or shadow of a person's head from the side; a side view.
countable
A summary or collection of information, especially about a person
An analysis (often in graphical form) representing the extent to which something exhibits various characteristics
An outline of something (especially a human face as seen from one side)
uncountable
The amount by which something protrudes.
verb
To act based on such a summary, especially one that is a stereotype; to engage in profiling.
transitive
To create a summary or collection of information about (a person, etc.).
Write about
“The author of this article profiles a famous painter.”
transitive
To draw in profile or outline.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The outermost shape, view, or edge of an object.
Used this way, profile 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 profile
- “The author of this article profiles a famous painter.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Recording a person's behavior and analyzing psychological characteristics in order to predict or assess their ability in a certain sphere or to identify a particular group of people.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Counting the number of white and red blood cells and the number of platelets in 1 cubic millimeter of blood.
A position attracting much attention and publicity.
A chart showing the number of people as a function of their ages.
A vertical section of soil from the ground surface to the parent rock.
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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.