VocabauraVOCABAURA

stony

adjective

Simple meaning

Lacking warmth and emotion.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

stohnee

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈstoʊni

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.

adjective

  1. figurativelyof a person

    Lacking warmth and emotion.

  2. Containing or made up of stones.

  3. figurativelyof an action or expression such as a look

    Showing no warmth of emotion.

  4. As hard as stone.

  5. UK and Australiaslang

    Ellipsis of stony broke: without any money.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (figuratively, of a person) Lacking warmth and emotion.

Used this way, stony is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Slightly negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Critical or judgemental
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “stony”. We review each one before it appears.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

stony brookstony groundstony pointstony creekstony heartstony hillstony pathstony road

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • stonernounPerson or profession

    An attacker who pelts the victim with stones (especially with intent to kill).

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • stony coralnounCompound term

    Corals having calcareous skeletons aggregations of which form reefs and islands.

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Knowing “stony” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

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.