referral
noun
Simple meaning
The act or process of transferring someone or something to another, of sending by reference.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rihfuruhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹɪˈfɝəl
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 referring (as forwarding an applicant for employment or referring a matter to an appropriate agency)
The act or process of transferring someone or something to another, of sending by reference, or referring.
slang
A document used by schools detailing some form of a student's misbehavior and listing the actions taken before and after the student's receipt of the referral.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of referring (as forwarding an applicant for employment or referring a matter to an appropriate agency)
Used this way, referral 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
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use referral
- “The patient is a referral from Dr. Bones.”noun
- “The insurance company says that you need a written referral from your physician before seeing a specialist.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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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.