shield
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Anything that protects or defends.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sheeldIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈʃild
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
Anything that protects or defends; defense; shelter; protection.
figurative
One who protects or defends.
A broad piece of defensive armor, held in hand, formerly in general use in war, for the protection of the body.
A shape like that of a shield; usually, an inverted triangle with sides that curve inward to form a pointed bottom, commonly used for police identifications and company logos.
A spot resembling, or having the form of a shield.
verb
ukintransitive
To shelter; to protect oneself.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Anything that protects or defends; defense; shelter; protection.
Used this way, shield 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
- harbor , 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 shield
- “The knight raised his shield to block the approaching arrow.”
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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.
The act of shielding from harm.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Any of various ferns of the genera Dryopteris or Polystichum or Lastreopsis having somewhat shield-shaped coverings on the sori.
A six-pointed star formed from two equilateral triangles.
A protective covering that protects a spacecraft from overheating on reentry.
A rubber or plastic shield to protect the nipples of nursing women.
North American fern whose more or less evergreen leathery fronds are covered with pale brown chafflike scales.
European shield fern cultivated in many varieties.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.