tariff
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A system of government-imposed duties levied on imported or exported goods.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehruhfSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɛɹəf
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 system of government-imposed duties levied on imported or exported goods; a list of such duties, or the duties themselves.
A schedule of rates, fees or prices.
british
A sentence determined according to a scale of standard penalties for certain categories of crime.
verb
transitive
To levy a duty on (something).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A system of government-imposed duties levied on imported or exported goods; a list of such duties, or the duties themselves.
Used this way, tariff is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in government or politics and ethics or values contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
- Ethics/values
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.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A United Nations agency created by a multinational treaty to promote trade by the reduction of tariffs and import quotas.
A tariff imposed to protect domestic firms from import competition.
A tariff imposed to raise revenue.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- electricitynoun
- importnoun
- wtonoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: system of government-imposed duties levied on imported
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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.