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slow

adjective · verb · noun

Simple meaning

Taking a long time to move or go a short distance, or to perform an action.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

sloh
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsloʊ

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.

adjective

  1. Taking a long time to move or go a short distance, or to perform an action; not quick in motion; proceeding at a low speed.

  2. Not happening in a short time; spread over a comparatively long time.

  3. Not moving quickly; taking a comparatively long time

  4. of a clock or the like

    Behind in time; indicating a time earlier than the true time.

  5. Lacking spirit; deficient in liveliness or briskness.

  6. of a period of time

    Not busy; lacking activity.

verb

  1. transitive

    To make (something) run, move, etc. less quickly; to reduce the speed of.

  2. transitive

    To keep from going quickly; to hinder the progress of.

  3. intransitive

    To become slow; to slacken in speed; to decelerate.

noun

  1. Someone who is slow; a sluggard.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Taking a long time to move or go a short distance, or to perform an action; not quick in motion; proceeding at a low speed.

Used this way, slow 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.

More ways to use slow

  • “The clock is almost an hour slow.”adverb
  • “The band played a slow waltz.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Taking / happening

slow motionslow pace

Keep

slow progress

Other combinations

slow processslow growthrelatively slowslow rateslow movement

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • sloweradverbInflected form

    More slowly.

  • slowingnounInflected form

    A decrease in rate of change.

  • slowestadverbInflected form

    Most slowly.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • slownessnounDerived noun · specialist

    Unskillfulness resulting from a lack of training.

  • slowlyadverbDerived adverb

    Without speed (`slow' is sometimes used informally for `slowly').

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • slow virusnounCompound term

    A virus that remains dormant in the body for a long time before symptoms appear.

  • slow-wittednessnounCompound term

    The quality of being mentally slow and limited.

  • slow downverbCompound term

    Lose velocity.

  • slow lanenounCompound term

    The traffic lane for vehicles that are moving slowly.

  • slow lorisnounCompound term

    Stocky lemur of southeastern Asia.

  • slow matchnounCompound term

    Match or fuse made to burn slowly and evenly.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • slowdownnounRelated term

    The act of slowing down or falling behind.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: taking a long time to move

laggard

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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.