sleeping
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
Being asleep, or an instance of this.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sleepingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈslipɪŋ
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
The state of being asleep, or an instance of this.
adjective
Used for sleep; used to produce sleep.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The state of being asleep, or an instance of this.
Used this way, sleeping 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 sleeping
- “The baby is sleeping peacefully in her crib right now.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: used for sleep
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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.