win
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Be the winner in a contest or competition.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
winIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwɪn
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.
verb
transitiveintransitive
To reach some destination or object, despite difficulty or toil (now usually intransitive, with preposition or locative adverb).
Be the winner in a contest or competition; be victorious
transitive
To gain (a prize) by succeeding in competition or contest.
transitive
To triumph or achieve victory in (a game, a war, etc.).
transitive
To obtain (someone) by wooing; to make an ally or friend of (frequently with over).
transitive
To obtain (something desired).
noun
A victory (as in a race or other competition)
“He was happy to get the win.”
An individual victory.
A diminutive of the female given name Winifred.
A diminutive of the male given name Winston.
A letter of the Old English alphabet, ƿ, borrowed from the futhark and used to represent the sound of w; replaced in Middle English times by the digraph uu, which later developed into the letter w.
colloquial
A Winchester firearm.
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: Be the winner in a contest or competition; be victorious
Used this way, win is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It quietly approves while staying precise.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Successful and accomplished
- Usage feel
- Precise and approving
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.