shape

1. 1.

   shape or influence; give direction to

   “experience often determines ability”

   “mold public opinion”

   Synonymsdeterminemoldinfluenceregulate

   Broadercause

   Narrowerdisposeindisposemiscreatecarry weightdecidereshapetimeindexpacepredetermine
2. 2.

   make something, usually for a specific function

   “She molded the rice balls carefully”

   “Form cylinders from the dough”

   “shape a figure”

   “Work the metal into a sword”

   Synonymsformworkmoldmouldforge

   Broadercreate from raw material

   Narrowercarveswage
3. 3.

   give shape or form to

   “shape the dough”

   “form the young child's character”

   Synonymsform

   Broaderchange

   Narrowerindividuatetieterraceforktabulatedimensionroll

Other forms of shape

plural

shapes·

past tense

shaped·

present participle

shaping·

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 shape

What does shape mean?

shape means "any spatial attributes (especially as defined by outline)". That is the primary sense; the word has 11 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in shape?

shape has 1 syllable: shape. In IPA it is /ˈʃeɪp/.

What is another word for shape?

Close synonyms include form, configuration, contour, conformation, form. 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 shape a common word?

shape is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. 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 shape?

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