psychological operation
noun
Simple meaning
Military actions designed to influence the perceptions and attitudes of people, groups, and foreign governments.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sykuhlahjihkuhlahperayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
saɪkəˈlɑdʒɪkəlɑpɚeɪʃən
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
Military actions designed to influence the perceptions and attitudes of individuals, groups, and foreign governments
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Military actions designed to influence the perceptions and attitudes of individuals, groups, and foreign governments
In this sense, psychological operation is a very strong, expressive word and usually reads as a strong judgement about someone's behaviour or state of mind. In casual exaggeration — a fitness maniac, driving like a maniac — it can sound playful or admiring, but it still carries far more force than simply saying someone is keen.
- Emotional tone
- Context-dependent
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Very strong
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Military
- Historical writing
- News/reporting
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.