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stuff

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Miscellaneous items or objects.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

stuhf
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈstʌf

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. informal

    Miscellaneous items or objects; (with possessive) personal effects.

  2. informal

    Miscellaneous unspecified objects

    “The trunk was full of stuff.”

  3. The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object

  4. informal

    Unspecified things or matters.

  5. Paper stock ground ready for use. When partly ground, it is called half stuff.

  6. Abstract/figurative substance or character.

verb

  1. transitive

    To fill by packing or crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.

  2. transitive

    To fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.

  3. Fill tightly with a material

  4. Treat with grease, fill, and prepare for mounting

  5. transitive

    To load goods into (a container) for transport.

  6. transitiveBritishAustraliaNew Zealand

    To break; to destroy.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
General English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Miscellaneous items or objects; (with possessive) personal effects.

Used this way, stuff is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Casual
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Playful
Usage feel
Casual and conversational

Where it naturally appears

  • Everyday conversation
  • Social media/informal writing

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

More ways to use stuff

  • “The trunk was full of stuff.”noun
  • “It was stuff I had heard before.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Unspecified

good stuff

Abstract

right stuff

Other combinations

stuff likesome stuff

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • stuffingnounInflected form

    A mixture of seasoned ingredients used to stuff meats and vegetables.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • stuffed dermanounCompound term

    Roasted fowl intestines with a seasoned filling of matzo meal and suet.

  • stuffed eggnounCompound term

    Halved hard-cooked egg with the yolk mashed with mayonnaise and seasonings and returned to the white.

  • stuffed grape leavesnounCompound term

    Well-seasoned rice (with nuts or currants or minced lamb) simmered or braised in stock.

  • stuffed mushroomnounCompound term

    Mushrooms stuffed with any of numerous mixtures of e.g. meats or nuts or seafood or spinach.

  • stuffed peppersnounCompound term

    Parboiled green peppers stuffed usually with rice and meat and baked briefly.

  • stuffed tomatonounCompound term

    Tomato cases filled with various salad mixtures and served cold.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to fill by packing or crowding something into

cramDated

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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.