shoe
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Footwear shaped to fit the foot with a flexible upper of leather or plastic and a sole and heel of heavier material.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
shooIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈʃu
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
footwear
A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part made of leather or synthetic material. Shoes generally do not extend above the ankle, as opposed to boots, which do.
footwear
Footwear shaped to fit the foot (below the ankle) with a flexible upper of leather or plastic and a sole and heel of heavier material
A piece of metal designed to be attached to a horse's foot as a means of protection; a horseshoe.
card games
A device for holding multiple decks of playing cards, allowing more games to be played by reducing the time between shuffles.
The outer cover or tread of a pneumatic tire, especially for an automobile.
Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
verb
transitive
To put shoes on someone or something else's feet, especially to put horseshoes on a horse.
intransitivechiefly as past participle
To cover an object with a protective layer of material.
Furnish with shoes
intransitive
To put shoes on one's own feet.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (footwear) A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part made of leather or synthetic material. Shoes generally do not extend above the ankle, as opposed to boots, which do.
Used this way, shoe 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 shoe
- “I need to buy a new pair of running shoes soon.”
Share your sentence
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “shoe” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.