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pullman

noun

Simple meaning

Luxurious passenger car.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

puulmuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpʊlmən

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. rail transportUS

    A railroad passenger car; especially one of the luxurious ones named after the eponymous Pullman Palace Car Company.

  2. rail transportUS

    Luxurious passenger car; for day or night travel

  3. A neighbourhood of Richmond, Contra Costa County, California, named after the Pullman Company.

  4. A neighbourhood of Amarillo, Potter County, Texas.

  5. A community area and neighbourhood on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, formerly a company town founded by George Pullman.

  6. A number of places in the United States

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (rail transport, US) A railroad passenger car; especially one of the luxurious ones named after the eponymous Pullman Palace Car Company.

Used this way, pullman is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Business/professional

Nearby words

  • pullman car , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Railroad / luxurious

pullman companygeorge pullman

Train

pullman train

Other combinations

pullman palaceprivate pullmanbill pullmanpullman sleeperpullman berth

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • pullman carnounCompound term

    Luxurious passenger car.

  • pullman porternounCompound term

    A railroad employee who assists passengers (especially on sleeping cars).

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: railroad passenger car

pullman carRare

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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.