zombie
noun
Simple meaning
A person, usually undead, animated by unnatural forces, with no soul or will of his or her own.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
zahmbeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈzɑmbi
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
voodoohorror
A person, usually undead, animated by unnatural forces (such as magic), with no soul or will of his or her own.
figuratively
An apathetic or slow-witted person.
figurative
Someone or something that should be dead but is not.
Several kinds of rum with fruit juice and usually apricot liqueur
A cocktail of rum and fruit juices.
figuratively
A human being in a state of extreme mental exhaustion.
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: (voodoo, horror) A person, usually undead, animated by unnatural forces (such as magic), with no soul or will of his or her own.
Used this way, zombie is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- 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 zombie
- “We watched a scary zombie movie for our Halloween night tradition.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A spirit or supernatural force that reanimates a dead body.
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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.