unidirectional
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Operating or moving or allowing movement in one direction only.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnyderehkshuhnuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ənaɪdɚˈɛkʃənəl
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.
adjective
Operating or moving or allowing movement in one direction only
Pertaining to only one direction, e.g.: where all component parts are aligned in the same direction in space.
Not subject to change or reversal of direction.
noun
A fabric in which the majority of fibers run in the same single direction.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Operating or moving or allowing movement in one direction only
Used this way, unidirectional 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 unidirectional
- “A unidirectional flow.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: operating or moving
Antonyms
Sense: operating or moving
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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.