ufo
noun
Simple meaning
Anything not readily explainable appearing to move through or be suspended in the air.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
yoouhfohSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
juɛˈfoʊ
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
colloquial
An "unfinished object" in knitting or other kinds of craft.
Anything not readily explainable appearing to move through or be suspended in the air.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An "unfinished object" in knitting or other kinds of craft.
Used this way, ufo is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Nearby words
- flying saucer , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use ufo
- “My friend claims to have seen a ufo hovering in the night sky.”
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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.