thicken
verb
Simple meaning
Make viscous or dense.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
thikuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈθɪkən
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.
verb
transitive
To make thicker (in the sense of more viscous).
transitive
To make thicker (in the sense of wider).
Make viscous or dense
“Thicken the sauce by adding flour.”
intransitive
To become thicker (in the sense of wider).
transitive
To make more frequent.
transitive
To strengthen; to confirm.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To make thicker (in the sense of more viscous).
Used this way, thicken 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
- No strong connotation
- 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 thicken
- “Thicken the sauce by adding flour.”verb
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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.