remain
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Continue in a place, position.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rihmaynSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹɪˈmeɪn
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
Stay the same; remain in a certain state
“The dress remained wet after repeated attempts to dry it.”
Continue in a place, position, or situation
To continue unchanged in place, form, or condition, or undiminished in quantity; to abide; to stay; to endure; to last.
To stay after others or other parts have been removed or otherwise disappeared.
To await; to be left to.
Stay behind
noun
chiefly in the plural
That which is left; relic; remainder.
in the plural
That which is left of a human being after the life is gone; relics; a dead body.
Posthumous works or productions, especially literary works.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: That which is left; relic; remainder.
Used this way, remain 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 remain
- “The dress remained wet after repeated attempts to dry it.”verb
- “There remains the question of who pulled the trigger.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Any object that is left unused or still extant.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Be counted out.
Hold one's ground.
A bag in which the body of a dead soldier is placed.
A relic that has been excavated from the soil.
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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.