trial
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
An occasion on which a person or thing is tested to find out how well they perform or how suitable they are.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tryuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɹaɪəl
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
An occasion on which a person or thing is tested to find out how well they perform or how suitable they are.
Trying something to find out about it
“A sample for ten days free trial.”
The testing of a product or procedure.
law
A meeting or series of meetings in a court of law at which evidence is presented to a judge (and sometimes a jury) to allow them to decide on a legal matter (especially whether an accused person is guilty of a crime).
An event in which athletes' or animals' abilities are tested as they compete for a place on a team, or to move on to the next level of a championship, for example.
medicinesciencesresearch
A research study to test the effectiveness and safety of a drug, medical procedure, etc.
verb
transitive
To carry out a series of tests on (a new product, procedure etc.) before marketing or implementing it.
transitive
To try out (a new player) in a sports team.
adjective
Characterized by having three (usually equivalent) components.
Attempted on a provisional or experimental basis.
Pertaining to a trial or test.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An occasion on which a person or thing is tested to find out how well they perform or how suitable they are.
Used this way, trial 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 trial
- “A sample for ten days free trial.”noun
- “In the experimental trials the amount of carbon was measured separately.”noun
- “He had a fair trial and the jury found him guilty.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Experimenting until a solution is found.
A lawyer who specializes in defending clients before a court of law.
A balance of debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping.
A test of public opinion.
A primitive method of determining a person's guilt or innocence by subjecting the accused person to dangerous or painful tests believed to be under divine control.
The first court before which the facts of a case are decided.
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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.