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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

practical.

Relating to, or based on, practice or action rather than theory or hypothesis.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɹak.tɪ.kəl/British, Midlands, Northern-England, Southern, Standard/ˈpɾak.tɪ.kəl/Scotland, Wales/ˈpɹɛk.tə.kəl/New-Zealand
  1. Relating to, or based on, practice or action rather than theory or hypothesis.

    Jack didn't get an engineering degree, but has practical knowledge of metalworking.
    Modern engineering applies science to practical problems.
  2. Being likely to be effective and applicable to a real situation; able to be put to use.

    Jack's knowledge has the practical benefit of giving us useful prototype parts.
  3. Of a person, having skills or knowledge that are practical.

    All in all, Jack's a very practical chap.
  4. Of a prop: having some degree of functionality, rather than being a mere imitation.

    not-comparable
  5. Light fixtures used for set lighting and seen in the frame of a shot as part of the scenery.

    Practical lighting can help sell the illusion that the film is a real situation.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English practical, practicale, praktycall, from Medieval Latin practicālis.

noun/ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɹak.tɪ.kəl/British, Midlands, Northern-England, Southern, Standard/ˈpɾak.tɪ.kəl/Scotland, Wales/ˈpɹɛk.tə.kəl/New-Zealand
  1. A part of an exam or series of exams in which the candidate has to demonstrate their practical ability

    UK
  2. A prop that has some degree of functionality, rather than being a mere imitation.

  3. A light fixture used for set lighting and seen in the frame of a shot as part of the scenery.

  4. Laboratory experiment, test or investigation

Where this word comes from

From Middle English practical, practicale, praktycall, from Medieval Latin practicālis.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.