rod
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A straight, round stick, shaft, bar, cane.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rahdIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹɑd
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 straight, round stick, shaft, bar, cane, or staff.
A longitudinal pole used for forming part of a framework such as an awning or tent.
A stick, pole, or bundle of switches or twigs (such as a birch), used for personal defense or to administer corporal punishment by whipping.
fishing
A long slender usually tapering pole used for angling; fishing rod.
An implement resembling and/or supplanting a rod (particularly a cane) that is used for corporal punishment, and metonymically called the rod, regardless of its actual shape and composition.
Any rod-shaped bacterium
verb
transitive
To furnish with rods, especially lightning rods.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (fishing) A long slender usually tapering pole used for angling; fishing rod.
Used this way, rod 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 rod
- “The house had a small yard of about six rods in size.”noun
- “When I hooked a snake and not a fish, I got so scared I dropped my rod in the water.”noun
- “I notched a rod and used it to measure the length of rope to cut.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to furnish with rods or especially lightning rods
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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.