define

Other forms of define

past tense

defined·

present participle

defining·

third person

defines·

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.

Questions about define

What does define mean?

define means "determine the essential quality of". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in define?

define has 2 syllables: de-fine. The stress falls on "fine". In IPA it is /dɪˈfaɪn/.

What is another word for define?

Close synonyms include specify, delineate, delimit, delimitate, delineate. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is define a common word?

define is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with define?

5 words rhyme with define. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.