pursuit
noun
Simple meaning
A hobby or recreational activity, done regularly.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
persootSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɚˈsut
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
The act of pursuing in an effort to overtake or capture
“The culprit started to run and the cop took off in pursuit.”
A hobby or recreational activity, done regularly.
cycle racing
A discipline in track cycling where two opposing teams start on opposite sides of the track and try to catch their opponents.
An auxiliary activity
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of pursuing in an effort to overtake or capture
Used this way, pursuit is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The culprit started to run and the cop took off in pursuit.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- 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 pursuit
- “The culprit started to run and the cop took off in pursuit.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The right to try to find happiness.
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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.