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refurbish

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To rebuild or replenish with all new material.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

reefurbish

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɹiˈfɝbɪʃ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. transitive

    To rebuild or replenish with all new material; to restore to original (or better) working order and appearance.

noun

  1. informal

    A refurbishment.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Rare
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To rebuild or replenish with all new material; to restore to original (or better) working order and appearance.

Used this way, refurbish is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
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 refurbish

  • “We refurbished the guest wing.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

completely refurbishhelped refurbish

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to rebuild or replenish with all new material

renovate

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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.