vegetarian
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
Someone who does not eat animal flesh, or, in some cases, use any animal products.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
vehjuhtehreeuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
vɛdʒəˈtɛɹiən
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
A person who does not eat animal flesh, or, in some cases, use any animal products.
An animal that eats only plants; a herbivore.
adjective
Of or relating to the type of diet eaten by vegetarians (in all senses).
That does not eat meat.
Without meat.
Of a product normally made with meat, having non-meat substitutes in place of meat.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person who does not eat animal flesh, or, in some cases, use any animal products.
Used this way, vegetarian 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 vegetarian
- “She decided to become a vegetarian for health and ethical reasons.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A diet excluding all meat and fish.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.