servant

noun

Simple meaning

Someone who is hired to perform regular household or other duties, and receives compensation.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

survuhnt

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsɝvənt

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

One who is hired to perform regular household or other duties, and receives compensation. As opposed to a slave.
One who serves another, providing help in some manner.
religion
A person who dedicates themselves to God.
A person of low condition or spirit.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Typical Use: Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: One who is hired to perform regular household or other duties, and receives compensation. As opposed to a slave.

Used this way, servant is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home and ethics or values contexts.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

Family/home
Ethics/values

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

More ways to use servant

“The royal family used to employ many servants in their large estate.”

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

public servantservant girldomestic servanthumble servantfaithful servantobedient servantgovernment servant

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

servant girlnounCompound term
A girl who is a servant.
house servantnounCompound term
A servant who is paid to perform menial tasks around the household.
public servantnounCompound term
Someone who holds a government position (either by election or appointment).
body servantnounCompound term
A valet or personal maid.
bond servantnounCompound term
Someone bound to labor without wages.
civil servantnounCompound term
A public official who is a member of the civil service.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

servant's entrancenounRelated term
An entrance intended for the use of servants or for delivery of goods and removal of refuse.

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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.