instill

1. 1.

   impart gradually

   “Her presence instilled faith into the children”

   “transfuse love of music into the students”

   Synonymstransfuse

   Broaderlend

   Narrowerbreathe
2. 2.

   enter drop by drop

   “instill medication into my eye”

   Synonymsinstil

   Broaderinsert
3. 3.

   produce or try to produce a vivid impression of

   “Mother tried to ingrain respect for our elders in us”

   Synonymsimpressingrain

   Broaderaffect
4. 4.

   teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions

   “inculcate values into the young generation”

   Synonymsinculcateinfuse

   Broaderdrill

   Narrowerdin
5. 5.

   fill, as with a certain quality

   “The heavy traffic tinctures the air with carbon monoxide”

   Synonymsimpregnateinfusetincture

   Broaderfill

Other forms of instill

past tense

instilled·

present participle

instilling·

third person

instills·

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 instill

What does instill mean?

instill means "impart gradually". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in instill?

instill has 2 syllables: in-still. The stress falls on "still". In IPA it is /ˌɪnˈstɪl/.

What is another word for instill?

Close synonyms include transfuse, instil, impress, ingrain, inculcate. 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 instill a common word?

instill is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. 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 instill?

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