trigger

1. 1.

   put in motion or move to act

   “trigger a reaction”

   “actuate the circuits”

   Synonymstripactuateactivateset offspark offsparktrigger offtouch off

   Broaderinitiate
2. 2.

   release or pull the trigger on

   “Trigger a gun”

Other forms of trigger

plural

triggers·

past tense

triggerred·

present participle

triggerring·

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 trigger

What does trigger mean?

trigger means "lever that activates the firing mechanism of a gun". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in trigger?

trigger has 2 syllables: trig-ger. The stress falls on "trig". In IPA it is /ˈtɹɪɡɚ/.

What is another word for trigger?

Close synonyms include gun trigger, induction, initiation, trip, actuate. 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 trigger a common word?

trigger 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 trigger?

1 word rhymes with trigger. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.