sickening
verb
Form of sicken , present participle of sicken.
Simple meaning
To fill with disgust or abhorrence.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sikuhningSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɪkənɪŋ
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.
verb
present participle of sicken
To fill with disgust or abhorrence.
present participle of sicken
To make ill.
present participle of sicken
Upset and make nauseated
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To fill with disgust or abhorrence.
Used this way, sickening is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- 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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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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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.