sweetness and light
noun
Simple meaning
That which is good, pleasant.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sweetnuhsandlytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈswitnəˈsændˈlaɪt
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
idiomaticoften in the negative or ironic
That which is good, pleasant, pure, etc.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: That which is good, pleasant, pure, etc.
Used this way, sweetness and light is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- 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.