shelling
noun
Simple meaning
The heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area rather than hit a specific target.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
shehlingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈʃɛlɪŋ
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
The heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area rather than hit a specific target
The removal of the shell from a nut, pea etc.
An artillery bombardment.
uncountable
Grain from which the husk has been removed.
Shallow, irregular cracks that appear on the surface of a coating such as plaster or mortar.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area rather than hit a specific target
Used this way, shelling is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a military use: it belongs to service and operational language.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Military
- Historical writing
- News/reporting
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Heavy artillery fire.
The heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area rather than hit a specific target.
A heavy curtain of artillery fire directed in front of one's own troops to screen and protect them.
A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Ammunition consisting of a cylindrical metal casing containing an explosive charge and a projectile.
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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.