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shock treatment

n · noun

Simple meaning

A 1981 American musical comedy film directed by Jim Sharman, and co-written by Sharman and Richard O'Brien.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

shahktreetmuhnt

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈʃɑktˈɹitmənt

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.

n

  1. A 1981 American musical comedy film directed by Jim Sharman, and co-written by Sharman and Richard O'Brien.

  2. A 1995 TV film directed by Michael Schultz.

  3. A 1964 American neo noir drama film directed by Denis Sanders and written by Sydney Boehm, based on Winfred Van Atta's 1961 novel of the same name.

  4. The fourth studio album by Edgar Winter and the second by the Edgar Winter Group.

  5. The third studio album by American rapper Krizz Kaliko.

  6. An album by trumpeter Don Ellis recorded in 1968 and released on the Columbia label.

noun

  1. Treatment of certain psychotic states by the administration of shocks that are followed by convulsions

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A 1981 American musical comedy film directed by Jim Sharman, and co-written by Sharman and Richard O'Brien.

Used this way, shock treatment is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a musical use: it is everyday language among musicians and listeners, and specialised outside that.

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

  • Music/performance
  • Arts writing
  • 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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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.