trample
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To walk heavily and destructively.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
trampuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɹæmpəl
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
intransitive
To walk heavily and destructively.
transitive
To crush something by walking on it.
Walk on and flatten
Injure by trampling or as if by trampling
“The passerby was trampled by an elephant.”
by extension
To cause emotional injury as if by trampling.
by extension
To treat someone harshly.
noun
A heavy stepping.
The sound of heavy treading or stomping
The sound of heavy footsteps.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To walk heavily and destructively.
Used this way, trample 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 trample
- “The passerby was trampled by an elephant.”verb
- “The soldiers trampled across the fields.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The sound of heavy treading or stomping.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.