relax
verb
Simple meaning
To rest and become relieved of stress.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rihlaksSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹɪˈlæks
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.
verb
intransitive
To rest and become relieved of stress.
Become less tense, rest, or take one's ease
“He relaxed in the hot tub.”
Become less tense, less formal, or less restrained, and assume a friendlier manner
“Our new colleague relaxed when he saw that we were a friendly group.”
Become less severe or strict
“The rules relaxed after the new director arrived.”
transitive
To relieve (someone or someone's mind) of stress; to enable to rest; to calm down.
intransitive
To become less severe or tense.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To rest and become relieved of stress.
Used this way, relax 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
Nearby words
- unwind , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- unbend , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use relax
- “Our new colleague relaxed when he saw that we were a friendly group.”verb
- “He relaxed in the hot tub.”verb
- “The rules relaxed after the new director arrived.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Affording physical or mental rest.
Without strain or anxiety.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The gradual lengthening of inactive muscle or muscle fibers.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to rest and become relieved of stress
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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.