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serious

adjective

Simple meaning

Concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

sihreeuhs

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsɪɹiəs

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.

adjective

  1. Concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities

  2. Really intending what is said (or planned, etc); in earnest; not jocular or deceiving.

  3. Important; weighty; not insignificant.

  4. Without humor or expression of happiness; grave in manner or disposition.

  5. of a relationship

    Committed.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Concerned with work or important matters rather than play or trivialities

Used this way, serious is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It suits considered writing and prepared speech.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Formal and precise

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use serious

  • “A serious student of history.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

serious considerationserious problemsserious injuryserious attentionserious matterserious illnessserious threatserious damage

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • serialnounDerived noun

    A serialized set of programs.

  • seriouslyadverbDerived adverb

    In a serious manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • serious-mindednessnounCompound term

    The trait of being serious.

  • serious musicnounCompound term

    Traditional genre of music conforming to an established form and appealing to critical interest and developed musical taste.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: concerned with work or important matters rather than play

earnestgravesobering

Antonyms

Sense: concerned with work or important matters rather than play

playful

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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.