river
noun
Simple meaning
A large natural stream of water.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
riverSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹɪvɚ
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.
noun
A large natural stream of water (larger than a creek)
“The river was navigable for 50 miles.”
A large and often winding stream which drains a land mass, carrying water down from higher areas to a lower point, oftentimes ending in another body of water, such as an ocean or in an inland sea.
Any large flow of a liquid in a single body.
poker
The last card dealt in a hand.
One who rives or splits.
A suburban village and civil parish in Dover district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TR2943).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A large natural stream of water (larger than a creek)
Used this way, river is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The river was navigable for 50 miles.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- 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 river
- “The river was navigable for 50 miles.”noun
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The entire geographical area drained by a river and its tributaries.
Birch of swamps and river bottoms throughout the eastern United States having reddish-brown bark.
Infestation with slender threadlike roundworms (filaria) deposited under the skin by the bite of black fleas.
A boat used on rivers or to ply a river.
A channel occupied (or formerly occupied) by a river.
A boulder that has been carried by a river to a place remote from its place of origin.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “river” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.