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shaft

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

shaft
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈʃæft

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

  1. The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.

  2. by extension

    Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.

  3. Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool.

  4. One of the poles between which a draught animal is harnessed to a vehicle.

  5. A rotating machine element used to transmit power; a driveshaft

  6. literary

    A beam or ray of light.

verb

  1. transitiveslang

    To fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery.

  2. transitive

    To equip with a shaft.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.

Used this way, shaft 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

Nearby words

  • diaphysis , a specialist term, precise but narrower

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

More ways to use shaft

  • “The miner descended into the dark shaft to reach the lower levels.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Long / anything

mine shaftelevator shaftvertical shaft

Poles

drive shaft

Other combinations

propeller shaftcrank shaftmain shaftoutput shaft

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • shaft lousenounCompound term

    A louse parasitic on poultry.

  • shaft of lightnounCompound term

    A column of light (as from a beacon).

  • rotating shaftnounCompound term

    A revolving rod that transmits power or motion.

  • rotor shaftnounCompound term

    The axis around which the major rotor of a helicopter turns.

  • transmission shaftnounCompound term

    Rotating shaft that transmits rotary motion from the engine to the differential.

  • ventilation shaftnounCompound term

    A shaft in a building.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: long or narrow

diaphysisTechnicallancebeam

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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.