sponsor
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A person or company that pays for an event, often for advertising
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
spahnserSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈspɑnsɚ
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
A person or organization that pays all or part of the cost of an event, publication, media program, etc., usually in exchange for advertising.
A person or organization with some sort of responsibility for another person or organization, especially where the responsibility has a religious, legal, or financial aspect.
A senior member of a twelve step or similar program chosen to guide an initiate and form a partnership with them.
verb
transitive
To be a sponsor for.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person or organization that pays all or part of the cost of an event, publication, media program, etc., usually in exchange for advertising.
Used this way, sponsor 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 sponsor
- “The senator announced that he would sponsor the health care plan.”verb
- “Our company decided to sponsor the charity run this year.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Terrorism practiced by a government against its own people or in support of international terrorism.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
The act of sponsoring (either officially or financially).
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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.