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vanquish

verb

Simple meaning

To defeat; to overcome.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

vangkwish

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈvæŋkwɪʃ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. transitive

    To defeat (someone); to overcome.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Rare

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To defeat (someone); to overcome.

Used this way, vanquish is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Gentle
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Critical but measured

Nearby words

  • trounce , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

vanquish deathvanquish evilfinally vanquish

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • beat

    To win against; to defeat or overcome; to do or be better than (someone); to excel in a particular, competitive event.

  • trounce

    To beat or overcome thoroughly, to defeat heavily.

  • crush

    To overcome completely.

  • beat out

    To defeat by a narrow margin.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to defeat (someone)

trounceRarecrush

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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.