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spurt

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A sudden brief burst of, or increase in, speed, effort, activity, emotion or development.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

spurt
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈspɝt

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.

noun

  1. A sudden brief burst of, or increase in, speed, effort, activity, emotion or development.

  2. A brief gush, as of liquid spurting from an orifice or a cut/wound.

  3. A moment, a short period of time.

  4. The act of spurting, or something spurted

verb

  1. Gush forth in a sudden stream or jet

  2. intransitive

    To rush from a confined place in a small stream or jet.

  3. intransitive

    To make a strong effort for a short period of time.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Rare
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A sudden brief burst of, or increase in, speed, effort, activity, emotion or development.

Used this way, spurt is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It comes across as direct, sometimes bluntly so.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Sudden and forceful
Usage feel
Blunt and forceful

Nearby words

  • spirt , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

growth spurtsudden spurtgreat spurtinitial spurtfinal spurtnew spurtblood spurtadolescent spurt

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Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

noun

Sense: sudden brief burst of or or increase in

spirtRarejet

verb

Sense: gush forth in a sudden stream or jet

spirtRarespout

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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.