whisker
noun
Simple meaning
A long stiff hair growing from the snout or brow of most mammals as e.g.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
wiskerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwɪskɚ
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 long stiff hair growing from the snout or brow of most mammals as e.g. a cat
One of the long, projecting hairs growing at the sides of the mouth of a cat, or other animal.
That part of the beard which grows upon the sides of the face, usually of the male, or upon the chin, or upon both.
A hair of the beard.
One who, or that which, whisks, or moves with a quick, sweeping motion.
colloquial
The (very small) distance between two things.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A long stiff hair growing from the snout or brow of most mammals as e.g. a cat
Used this way, whisker 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.
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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.
Move somewhere quickly.
The hair growing on the lower part of a man's face.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A liquor made from fermented mash of grain.
A liquor made from fermented mash of grain.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A jay of northern North America with black-capped head and no crest.
Facial hair that has grown down the side of a man's face in front of the ears (especially when the rest of the beard is shaved off).
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.