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ribbon

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A long, narrow strip of material used for decoration of clothing or the hair or gift wrapping.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ribuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɹɪbən

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. A long, narrow strip of material used for decoration of clothing or the hair or gift wrapping.

  2. A long strip of inked material for making characters on paper with a typewriter

  3. An inked strip of material against which type is pressed to print letters in a typewriter or printer.

  4. Notion consisting of a narrow strip of fine material used for trimming

  5. A narrow strip or shred.

  6. A watchspring.

verb

  1. transitive

    To stripe or streak.

  2. transitive

    To decorate with ribbon.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A long, narrow strip of material used for decoration of clothing or the hair or gift wrapping.

Used this way, ribbon 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 ribbon

  • “A mere ribbon of land.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Long / inked

blue ribbonred ribbonyellow ribbongreen ribbon

Other combinations

pink ribbonribbon cableribbon developmentblack ribbon

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • ribbon developmentnounCompound term

    Building complex in a continuous row along a road.

  • ribbon fernnounCompound term

    Fern of North Africa and Azores and Canary Islands.

  • ribbon grassnounCompound term

    Perennial grass of marshy meadows and ditches having broad leaves.

  • ribbon-leaved water plantainnounCompound term

    A variety of water plantain.

  • ribbon snakenounCompound term

    Slender yellow-striped North American garter snake.

  • ribbon treenounCompound term

    Deciduous New Zealand tree whose inner bark yields a strong fiber that resembles flax and is called New Zealand cotton.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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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.