welter
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
A tossing or rolling about.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
wehlterSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwɛltɚ
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
A tossing or rolling about.
A general confusion or muddle, especially of a large number of items.
verb
intransitive
To roll around; to wallow.
Toss, roll, or rise and fall in an uncontrolled way
“The shipwrecked survivors weltered in the sea for hours.”
intransitivefigurative
To revel, luxuriate.
To wither; to wilt.
adjective
Heavyweight. (of horsemen)
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A tossing or rolling about.
Used this way, welter is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- 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 welter
- “The shipwrecked survivors weltered in the sea for hours.”verb
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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.
A raised mark on the skin (as produced by the blow of a whip).
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: tossing or rolling about
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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.