second fiddle
noun
Simple meaning
Someone who serves in a subordinate capacity or plays a secondary role.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sehkuhndfiduhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɛkəndˈfɪdəl
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
Someone who serves in a subordinate capacity or plays a secondary role
idiomatic
A sidekick or subordinate, or the role of such a person.
music
The person playing second fiddle.
music
A fiddle part in harmony to the first fiddle.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Someone who serves in a subordinate capacity or plays a secondary role
Used this way, second fiddle 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.
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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.