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relaxation

noun

Simple meaning

Relaxing or being relaxed.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

reelaksayshuhn

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɹilækˈseɪʃən

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.

noun

  1. The act of relaxing or the state of being relaxed; the opposite of stress or tension; the aim of recreation and leisure activities.

  2. Unbending; recreation; a state or occupation intended to give mental or bodily relief after effort.

  3. Remission or abatement of rigor.

  4. A diminution of tone, tension, or firmness; specifically in pathology: a looseness; a diminution of the natural and healthy tone of parts.

  5. Remission of attention or application.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The act of relaxing or the state of being relaxed; the opposite of stress or tension; the aim of recreation and leisure activities.

Used this way, relaxation 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
Matter-of-fact
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 relaxation

  • “Yoga is a great way to achieve deep relaxation and peace.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Relaxing

relaxation training

Method

relaxation response

Other combinations

stress relaxationmuscle relaxationprogressive relaxationsome relaxationrelaxation ratelattice relaxation

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • repose

    Of the face, a muscle, etc.: the state of being relaxed and not in tension.

  • rest

    Any relief from exertion.

  • ease

    Comfort, a state or quality lacking unpleasantness, particularly.

  • easiness

    The state or quality of being easy (in various senses). particularly.

  • liberalization

    The lessening of government regulations and restrictions in an economy in exchange for greater participation by private….

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • relaxation methodnounCompound term

    A method of solving simultaneous equations by guessing a solution and then reducing the errors that result by successive approximations until all the errors are less than some specified…

  • relaxation timenounCompound term

    The time constant of an exponential return of a system to equilibrium after a disturbance.

  • relaxation behaviornounCompound term

    The exponential return of a system to equilibrium after a disturbance.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: relaxing

repose

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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.