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say it: puhf
puff is a noun, verb and adjective meaning "a short light gust of air". It is pronounced /ˈpʌf/ — puhf. It carries 17 recorded senses.
a short light gust of air
a light inflated pastry or puff shell
exaggerated praise (as for promotional purposes)
a soft spherical object made from fluffy fibers; for applying powder to the skin
a slow inhalation (as of tobacco smoke)
“he took a puff on his pipe”
“he took a drag on his cigarette and expelled the smoke slowly”
forceful exhalation through the nose or mouth
“he gave his nose a loud blow”
“he blew out all the candles with a single puff”
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 puff 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.