valley
noun
Simple meaning
An elongated depression cast between hills or mountains, often with a river flowing through it.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
valeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈvæli
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 elongated depression cast between hills or mountains, often with a river flowing through it.
An area which drains itself into a river.
A number of townships in the United States, listed under Valley Township.
Ellipsis of the San Fernando Valley: a valley of southern California, United States.
A community in Colchester, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Originally, the region of the San Francisco Bay Area in which there were a high number of industries producing silicon chips; later extended to mean the entire concentration of high-tech businesses in this area.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An elongated depression cast between hills or mountains, often with a river flowing through it.
Used this way, valley 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 valley
- “The beautiful valley was covered in wildflowers during the spring.”noun
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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.