purloin
verb
Simple meaning
To take the property of another, often in breach of trust.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
perloynSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɚˈlɔɪn
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.
verb
transitiveusually formal or humorous
To take the property of another, often in breach of trust; to appropriate wrongfully; to steal.
intransitive
To commit theft; to thieve.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To take the property of another, often in breach of trust; to appropriate wrongfully; to steal.
Used this way, purloin is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It turns up most in academic writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Formal
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
Usage note
Comfortable in writing and prepared speech; in casual conversation a shorter everyday word usually sounds more natural.
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.