sharpness

noun

Simple meaning

The cutting ability of an edge.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

shahrpnuhs

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈʃɑɹpnəs

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

uncountable
The cutting ability of an edge; keenness.
The quality of being sharp and clear
countable
The product or result of being sharp.
of intelligence
Acuteness or acuity.
Thinness of edge or fineness of point
uncountable
The fineness of the point a pointed object.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Uncommon
Formality: Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The cutting ability of an edge; keenness.

Used this way, sharpness 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.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

image sharpnesssome sharpnessgreater sharpnessgreat sharpnessedge sharpnessmaximum sharpnesscertain sharpness

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

sharpernounPerson or profession
A professional card player who makes a living by cheating at card games.
sharplyadverbDerived adverb
In an aggressive manner.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

sharp-sightednessnounRelated term
Sharpness of vision.

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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.