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weed

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

weed
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈwid

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. countable

    Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.

  2. uncountableinformaloriginally slang

    Cannabis.

  3. A drug or the like made from the leaves of a plant.

  4. countablefiguratively

    Something unprofitable or troublesome; anything useless.

  5. countable

    A weak horse, which is therefore unfit to breed from.

  6. with theuncountablecolloquial

    Tobacco.

verb

  1. transitive

    To remove unwanted vegetation from a cultivated area (especially grass).

  2. figurativetransitive

    To pilfer the best items from a collection.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.

Used this way, weed is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Slightly negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Critical or judgemental
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 weed

  • “I spent Saturday afternoon pulling weeds from the garden bed.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Plant

weed growth

Puny

noxious weed

Other combinations

weed controlweed sciencedill weedweed killerweed speciesweed management

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • weedsnounPlural form

    A black garment (dress) worn by a widow as a sign of mourning.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • weed-whackernounCompound term

    A hand tool for removing weeds.

  • weed outverbCompound term

    Remove unwanted elements.

  • weed killernounCompound term

    A chemical agent that destroys plants or inhibits their growth.

  • ague weednounCompound term

    Gentian of eastern North America having clusters of bristly blue flowers.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing

pot

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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.