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supper

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A light evening meal.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

suhper

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈsʌpɚ

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. A light evening meal; served in early evening if dinner is at midday or served late in the evening at bedtime

  2. A social gathering where a light evening meal is served

  3. (Midwestern US, Canadian Prairies, Atlantic Canada, South Africa) Any meal eaten in the evening; dinner eaten in the evening, rather than at noon.

  4. Food consumed before going to bed.

  5. A drinker, especially one who drinks slowly (i.e., one who sups).

verb

  1. transitive

    To provide (a person or animal) with supper.

  2. intransitive

    To eat dinner.

  3. intransitive

    To consume a snack before going to bed.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A light evening meal; served in early evening if dinner is at midday or served late in the evening at bedtime

Used this way, supper 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 supper

  • “We usually have a light supper together before bedtime.”noun

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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.