stagger
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
stagerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈstæɡɚ
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
An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion.
The spacing out of various actions over time.
uk
One who attends a stag night.
Bewilderment; perplexity.
verb
intransitive
In standing or walking, to sway from one side to the other as if about to fall; to stand or walk unsteadily; to reel or totter.
transitive
To cause to reel or totter.
intransitive
To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail.
transitive
To cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock.
intransitive
To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate.
To schedule in intervals or at different times.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion.
Used this way, stagger 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 stagger
- “She was staggered with bills after she tried to rebuild her house following the earthquake.”verb
- “The drunken man staggered into the room.”verb
- “He staggered along in the heavy snow.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A board of directors a portion of whose members are elected each year instead of all members being elected annually.
A headline with the top line flush left and succeeding lines indented to the right.
Deciduous shrub of coastal plain of the eastern United States having nodding pinkish-white flowers.
A headline with the top line flush left and succeeding lines indented to the right.
A disease of the central nervous system affecting especially horses and cattle.
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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.