solve
verb
Simple meaning
To find the answer to a problem or puzzle.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sahlvIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɑlv
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
Find the solution to (a problem or question) or understand the meaning of
To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out.
To find out the perpetrator, the motive etc (of crime)
mathematics
To find the values of variables that satisfy a system of equations and/or inequalities.
transitive
To loosen or separate the parts of.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Find the solution to (a problem or question) or understand the meaning of
Used this way, solve 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
Nearby words
- figure out , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- puzzle out , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use solve
- “Did you solve the problem?”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
To find a solution to (a problem).
To come to understand.
To figure out; to discover or find a solution to.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Finding a solution to a problem.
Explained or answered.
A thinker who focuses on the problem as stated and tries to synthesize information and knowledge to achieve a solution.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A thinker who focuses on the problem as stated and tries to synthesize information and knowledge to achieve a solution.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: find the solution to (a problem or question)
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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.