respond
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To say something in return.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rihspahndSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹɪsˈpɑnd
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
transitiveintransitive
To say something in return; to answer; to reply.
intransitive
To act in return; to carry out an action or in return to a force or stimulus; to do something in response.
ambitransitive
To correspond with; to suit.
intransitive
To be liable for payment.
transitive
To satisfy; to answer.
noun
A response.
A versicle or short anthem chanted at intervals during the reading of a lection.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To say something in return; to answer; to reply.
Used this way, respond 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.
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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.
Someone who responds.
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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.