vocational
adjective
Simple meaning
That provides a special skill rather than academic knowledge.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
vohkayshuhnuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
voʊˈkeɪʃənəl
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.
adjective
of education
That provides a special skill rather than academic knowledge.
Of or relating to a vocation or occupation; especially providing or undergoing training in special skills
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: (of education) That provides a special skill rather than academic knowledge.
Used this way, vocational is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in academic writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use vocational
- “He attended a vocational school to learn about auto mechanics.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A program of vocational education.
Providing training in a specific trade with the aim of gaining employment.
A program of rehabilitation through job training with an eye to gainful employment.
A secondary school teaching the skilled trades.
Training for a specific vocation in industry or agriculture or trade.
Training for a specific vocation in industry or agriculture or trade.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- technicaladjective
- curriculumnoun
- counselingnoun
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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.