staggering
verb
Form of stagger , present participle of stagger.
Simple meaning
To sway from one side to the other as if about to fall.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
stageringSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈstæɡɚɪŋ
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
present participle of stagger
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.
present participle of stagger
To cause to reel or totter.
present participle of stagger
To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: 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.
Used this way, staggering 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
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.