shin
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A cut of meat from the lower part of the leg.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
shinIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈʃɪn
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
A cut of meat from the lower part of the leg
The inner and thicker of the two bones of the human leg between the knee and ankle
A fishplate for a railway
The twenty-first letter of many Semitic alphabets/abjads (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others): Shin (letter) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
verb
To climb up or lower oneself down a mast, tree, rope, or the like, by embracing it alternately with the arms and legs, without help of steps, spurs, or the like.
usslang
To run about borrowing money hastily and temporarily, as when trying to make a payment.
To strike with the shin.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The inner and thicker of the two bones of the human leg between the knee and ankle
Used this way, shin 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 shin
- “I accidentally bumped my shin really hard on the coffee table this morning.”noun
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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.