velvet

noun · adjective · verb

Simple meaning

A closely woven fabric with a thick short pile on one side.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

vehlvuht

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈvɛlvət

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.

noun

Very fine fur, including the skin and fur on a deer's antlers.
A closely woven fabric (originally of silk, now also of cotton or man-made fibres) with a thick short pile on one side.

adjective

Made of velvet.
Soft and delicate, like velvet; velvety.

verb

figurativetransitive
To soften; to mitigate.
of a cat's claws
To retract.
To cover with velvet or with a covering of a similar texture.
To remove the velvet from a deer's antlers.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Typical Use: General and technical use

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A closely woven fabric (originally of silk, now also of cotton or man-made fibres) with a thick short pile on one side.

Used this way, velvet 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 velvet

“Her new dress was made of a soft, luxurious velvet material.”

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

red velvetblue velvetvelvet glovevelvet undergroundvelvet revolutiongreen velvetcrimson velvetpurple velvet

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

velvet bentnounCompound term
Common grass with slender stems and narrow leaves.
velvet bent grassnounCompound term
Common grass with slender stems and narrow leaves.
velvet flowernounCompound term
Young leaves widely used as leaf vegetables.
velvet grassnounCompound term
Tall European perennial grass having a velvety stem.
velvet-leafnounCompound term
Arborescent perennial shrub having palmately lobed furry leaves and showy red-purple flowers.
velvet osiernounCompound term
Willow with long flexible twigs used in basketry.

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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.