viper

noun

Simple meaning

A kind of poisonous snake.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

vyper

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IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈvaɪpɚ

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

informal
Any venomous snake.
A venomous snake in the family Viperidae.
Venomous Old World snakes characterized by hollow venom-conducting fangs in the upper jaw
figurative
A dangerous, treacherous, or malignant person.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Formality: Technical

Word Aura™

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

pit vipercommon vipercarpet vipersand viperviper venomdodge viperviper roomviper bite

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

gaboon vipernounCompound term
Large heavy-bodied brilliantly marked and extremely venomous west African viper.
horned vipernounCompound term
Highly venomous viper of northern Africa and southwestern Asia having a horny spine above each eye.
pit vipernounCompound term
New World vipers with hollow fangs and a heat-sensitive pit on each side of the head.
sand vipernounCompound term
Highly venomous viper of northern Africa and southwestern Asia having a horny spine above each eye.
asp vipernounCompound term
Of southern Europe.
common vipernounCompound term
Small terrestrial viper common in northern Eurasia.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

vipera berusnounRelated term
Small terrestrial viper common in northern Eurasia.
family viperidaenounRelated term
Old World vipers.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

cobranoun
serpentnoun
snakenoun

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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.