outline

1. 1.

   describe roughly or briefly or give the main points or summary of

   “sketch the outline of the book”

   “outline his ideas”

   Synonymssketchadumbrate

   Broaderdescribe

   Narrowerblock out
2. 2.

   draw up an outline or sketch for something

   “draft a speech”

   Synonymsdraft

   Broaderwrite

   writing

3. 3.

   trace the shape of

   Synonymsdelineatelimn

   Broaderdraw

   Narrowerlipstickcontour

Other forms of outline

plural

outlines·

past tense

outlined·

present participle

outlining·

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 outline

What does outline mean?

outline means "the line that appears to bound an object". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in outline?

outline has 2 syllables: out-line. The stress falls on "out". In IPA it is /ˈaʊtˌlaɪn/.

What is another word for outline?

Close synonyms include lineation, synopsis, abstract, precis, schema. 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 outline a common word?

outline is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. 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 outline?

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