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veneer

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A thin decorative covering of fine material applied to coarser wood or other material.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

vuhnir

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

vəˈnɪɹ

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

  1. An attractive appearance that covers or disguises one's true nature or feelings, the veneer of culture.

  2. A thin decorative covering of fine material (usually wood) applied to coarser wood or other material.

verb

  1. transitivefigurative

    To disguise with apparent goodness.

  2. Cover with veneer

  3. transitivewoodworking

    To apply veneer to.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A thin decorative covering of fine material (usually wood) applied to coarser wood or other material.

Used this way, veneer 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.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Thin / coating

thin veneerwood veneer

Other combinations

brick veneerstone veneerface veneerveneer crownporcelain veneerpartial veneer

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Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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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.