service
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An act of help or assistance.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
survuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɝvəs
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
An act of help or assistance
An act of being of assistance to someone.
The state of being subordinate to or employed by an individual or group.
ellipticaluncountable
Work as a member of the military.
A department in a company, organization, or institution.
A company or agency that performs a public service; subject to government regulation
verb
transitive
To perform maintenance.
transitive
To serve.
transitive
To make a repayment or pay interest (on a debt).
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: An act of help or assistance
Used this way, service 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 service
- “Budget separately for goods and services.”noun
- “He retired after 30 years of service.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Performance of duties or provision of space and equipment helpful to others.
The act of mating by male animals.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Ready for service or able to give long service.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A trip made by a repairman to visit the location of something in need of service.
A cap with a flat circular top and a visor.
Altitude above which a plane cannot climb faster than a given rate.
A percentage of a bill (as at a hotel or restaurant) added in payment for service.
A club of professional or business people organized for their coordination and active in public services.
A contract for maintenance services.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The quality of being able to provide good service.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to perform maintenance
Antonyms
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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.