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say it: kays
case is a noun and verb meaning "an occurrence of something". It is pronounced /ˈkeɪs/ — kays. It carries 22 recorded senses.
a special set of circumstances
“in that event, the first possibility is excluded”
“it may rain in which case the picnic will be canceled”
a comprehensive term for any proceeding in a court of law whereby an individual seeks a legal remedy
“the family brought suit against the landlord”
law
a portable container for carrying several objects
“the musicians left their instrument cases backstage”
a person requiring professional services
“a typical case was the suburban housewife described by a marriage counselor”
a person who is subjected to experimental or other observational procedures; someone who is an object of investigation
“the subjects for this investigation were selected randomly”
“the cases that we studied were drawn from two different communities”
a statement of facts and reasons used to support an argument
“he stated his case clearly”
the quantity contained in a case
nouns or pronouns or adjectives (often marked by inflection) related in some way to other words in a sentence
a specific size and style of type within a type family
an enveloping structure or covering enclosing an animal or plant organ or part
(printing) the receptacle in which a compositor has his type, which is divided into compartments for the different letters, spaces, or numbers
“for English, a compositor will ordinarily have two such cases, the upper case containing the capitals and the lower case containing the small letters”
printing
bed linen consisting of a cover for a pillow
“the burglar carried his loot in a pillowcase”
a glass container used to store and display items in a shop or museum or home
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for case come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.