wagon
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A child's four-wheeled toy cart sometimes used for coasting.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
waguhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwæɡən
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
USchiefly New England
A child's four-wheeled toy cart sometimes used for coasting
A heavier four-wheeled (normally horse-drawn) vehicle designed to carry goods (or sometimes people).
rail transport
A vehicle (wagon) designed to transport goods or people on railway.
uschiefly new england
A shopping cart.
A set of light shelves mounted on castors so that it can be pushed around a dining room and used for serving.
chiefly australiausslang
A body style for cars in which the roof is extended rearward to produce an enclosed area in the position and serving the function of the boot (trunk) of a sedan or saloon.
verb
transitivechiefly us
To load into a wagon in preparation for transportation; to transport by means of a wagon.
intransitivechiefly us
To travel in a wagon.
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 child's four-wheeled toy cart sometimes used for coasting
Used this way, wagon is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Family/home
Nearby words
- waggon , used mainly in Regional English
- police van , a specialist term, precise but narrower
- black maria , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- paddy wagon , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- patrol wagon , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use wagon
- “We loaded the picnic supplies into the wagon for the trip to the beach.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The driver of a wagon.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A metal hoop forming the tread of a wheel.
A wheel of a wagon.
A procession (of wagons or mules or camels) traveling together in single file.
A passenger car that has berths for sleeping.
A car that has a long body and rear door with space behind rear seat.
A wagon equipped with a cookstove and provisions (for cowboys).
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
noun
Sense: child's four-wheeled toy cart sometimes used for coasting
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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.