HOW TO PRONOUNCE
asylum
/əˈsaɪləm/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:05
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What does asylum mean?
noun
- A place of safety or refuge.
- The protection, physical and legal, afforded by such a place (as, for example, for political refugees).
More meanings (3)
noun
- (dated) A place of protection or restraint for one or more classes of the disadvantaged, especially the mentally ill.
verb
- (dated) to place in an asylum
- (dated) to grant protection or refuge
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/əˈsaɪləm/
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
“Friend, do me a kindness. Do you belong to the asylum, or are you just on a visit or something like that?”
Our host pulled him out by an agitated leg, and the child returned to the asylum swathed in that gentleman's rose-colored bathrobe.
More book examples (2)
It appears that despite his first terror of being sent to an asylum he adapted himself to his new surroundings very readily.
One investigator shows that the diagnosis of "insanity" with later commitment to an asylum occurred in the case of a bad stutterer.