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shut down

verb

Simple meaning

To close, end.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

shuhtdown

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈʃʌtˈdaʊn

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.

verb

  1. transitive

    To close, terminate, or end.

  2. ergative

    To turn off or stop.

  3. figurativelyintransitive

    To emotionally withdraw into oneself as a defense mechanism; to block out external stressors.

  4. figurativetransitive

    To suppress, block out, or reject (an idea or an aspect of one's personality or identity).

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To close, terminate, or end.

Used this way, shut down 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
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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.