rehearsal
noun
Simple meaning
The practising of something which is to be performed before an audience, usually to test or improve the interaction between several participating people.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rihhursuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹɪˈhɝsəl
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 practising of something which is to be performed before an audience, usually to test or improve the interaction between several participating people, or to allow technical adjustments with respect to staging to be done.
The act of rehearsing or contriving something; the fact of something's being rehearsed.
A preparatory activity analogous to a rehearsal (sense 1).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The practising of something which is to be performed before an audience, usually to test or improve the interaction between several participating people, or to allow technical adjustments with respect to staging to be done.
Used this way, rehearsal is a specialist word with a mildly favourable edge. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly positive
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use rehearsal
- “He missed too many rehearsals.”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.
A full uninterrupted rehearsal in costumes shortly before the first performance.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Engage in a rehearsal (of).
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- auditoriumnoun
- workshopnoun
- concertnoun
- balletnoun
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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.