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wanted

adjective

Simple meaning

Desired or wished for or sought.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

wahntuhd

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈwɑntəd

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.

adjective

  1. Desired or wished for or sought

    “Couldn't keep her eyes off the wanted toy.”

  2. law enforcement

    Subject to immediate detainment by law enforcement authorities on sight.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Desired or wished for or sought

Used this way, wanted is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Heard in a sentence
“Couldn't keep her eyes off the wanted toy.”
Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Common
Connotation
No strong connotation
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 wanted

  • “Couldn't keep her eyes off the wanted toy.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

wanted nothing

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • wantverbBase word

    Feel or have a desire for.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • wanted posternounCompound term

    A public announcement by a law enforcement agency that they desire to question or arrest some person.

  • wanted noticenounCompound term

    A public announcement by a law enforcement agency that they desire to question or arrest some person.

  • international wanted noticenounCompound term

    An Interpol notice describing a wanted person and asking that he or she be arrested with a view to extradition.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • want adnounRelated term

    A newspaper advertisement stating what is wanted.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: desired or wished for or sought

unwanted

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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.