special delivery
noun
Simple meaning
A kind of postal service in which, for an extra fee, letters and packages are delivered in a highly expedited manner by a special courier.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
spehshuhldihlivereeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈspɛʃəldɪˈlɪvɚi
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
Mail that is delivered by a special carrier (for an additional charge)
uncountable
A kind of postal service in which, for an extra fee, letters and packages are delivered in a highly expedited manner by a special courier.
countable
A particular posted letter or package which is delivered in this manner; a particular act of conveying such letters or packages to one or more recipients.
(countable and uncountable, idiomatic, by extension, sometimes humorous) Something—whether desirable or undesirable—which is intentionally given to a specific individual or which an individual receives rapidly and unexpectedly; the personalized, direct quality of the transmission of such an item.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Mail that is delivered by a special carrier (for an additional charge)
Used this way, special delivery 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.
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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.