stream
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A steady flow of a fluid.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
streemIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈstɹim
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 steady flow of a fluid (usually from natural causes)
Any steady flow or succession of material, such as water, air, radio signal or words.
An instance of streaming digital data.
Digital data (e.g. music or video) delivered in a continuous manner to a client computer, intended for immediate consumption or playback.
A small river; a large creek; a body of moving water confined by banks.
Current, the force of moving water.
verb
intransitive
To flow in a continuous or steady manner, like a liquid.
To extend, wave or float outward, as if in the wind
“Their manes streamed like stiff black pennants in the wind.”
intransitive
To extend; to stretch out with a wavy motion; to float in the wind.
transitive
To discharge in a stream.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A steady flow of a fluid (usually from natural causes)
Used this way, stream 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.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Exuding a bodily fluid in profuse amounts.
Light that streams.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An artificial fly that has wings extending back beyond the crook of the fishhook.
Orchid growing along streams or ponds of western North America having leafy stems and 1 greenish-brown and pinkish flower in the axil of each upper leaf.
A literary genre that reveals a character's thoughts and feeling as they develop by means of a long soliloquy.
A violently fast stream of water (or other liquid).
The blood flowing through the circulatory system.
A warm ocean current that flows from the Gulf of Mexico northward through the Atlantic Ocean.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to flow in a continuous or steady manner
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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.