qualm
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A sudden sickly feeling.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kwahmIPA pronunciation (US)
kwɑːm
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
A sudden sickly feeling; queasiness.
A feeling of apprehension, doubt, fear etc.
A prick of the conscience; a moral scruple, a pang of guilt. (Now often in negative constructions.)
“This lawyer has no qualms about saving people who are on the wrong side of the law.”
verb
To have a sickly feeling.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Typical Use
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A sudden sickly feeling; queasiness.
Used this way, qualm is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It comes across as direct, sometimes bluntly so.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Sudden and forceful
- Usage feel
- Blunt and forceful
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.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: sudden sickly feeling
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.