rain
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Water falling in drops from vapor condensed in the atmosphere.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
raynIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹeɪn
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
meteorology
Water falling in drops from vapor condensed in the atmosphere
meteorology
Drops of fresh water that fall as precipitation from clouds
meteorology
Condensed water falling from a cloud.
figuratively
Any matter moving or falling, usually through air, and especially if liquid or otherwise figuratively identifiable with raindrops.
figuratively
An instance of particles or larger pieces of matter moving or falling through air.
verb
impersonalmeteorology
To have rain fall from the sky.
transitivefiguratively
To issue (something) in large quantities.
impersonalmeteorology
Precipitate as rain
“If it rains much more, we can expect some flooding.”
intransitivefiguratively
To fall as or like rain.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Water falling in drops from vapor condensed in the atmosphere
Used this way, rain is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This sense is used where position and measurement matter — travel, weather and flight — so it reads as factual rather than emotive.
- 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
- Geography/travel
- Weather/aviation
- Technical/specialist writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use rain
- “If it rains much more, we can expect some flooding.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A mountain peak in central Washington.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Gauge consisting of an instrument to measure the quantity of precipitation.
Gauge consisting of an instrument to measure the quantity of precipitation.
An epithet for Jupiter.
Prevent or interrupt due to rain.
An area that has little precipitation because some barrier causes the winds to lose their moisture before reaching it.
A brief period of precipitation.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
An arc of colored light in the sky caused by refraction of the sun's rays by rain.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: water falling in drops from vapor condensed in the atmosphere
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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.