casual
Something casual is ordinary or everyday — not too special, unusual, fancy, serious, or eventful. You might have a casual conversation with your classmates before homeroom, or attend a casual backyard barbecue.
If you're going to your friend's house for a dinner of pizza and soda, you could describe the evening as a casual night at home. Formal attire might mean tuxedos and evening gowns, but casual clothing is the kind of clothing you wear every day, for ordinary activities. If you treat a person or a subject in a casual way, you're not paying close attention or treating them as special. And you might remind your siblings to act casual on the day of your mom's surprise birthday party so that they don't ruin the surprise.
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without or seeming to be without plan or method; offhand“a casual remark”“information collected by casual methods and in their spare time”synonyms:unplannedwithout apparent forethought or prompting or planning
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marked by blithe unconcern“an ability to interest casual students”“showed a casual disregard for cold weather”synonyms: insouciant, nonchalantunconcernedlacking in interest or care or feeling
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natural and unstudied
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not showing effort or strain“a difficult feat performed with casual mastery”synonyms: effortlesseasyposing no difficulty; requiring little effort
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hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough“a casual (or cursory) inspection failed to reveal the house's structural flaws”synonyms: cursory, passing, perfunctorycarelessmarked by lack of attention or consideration or forethought or thoroughness; not careful
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characterized by a feeling of irresponsibility
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appropriate for ordinary or routine occasions
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occurring from time to time“casual employment”“a casual correspondence with a former teacher”synonyms: occasionalirregularcontrary to rule or accepted order or general practice
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occurring or appearing or singled out by chance
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Vocabulary lists containing casual
Context is king — that’s the lesson you need to internalize as you begin preparing for the vocabulary questions on the SAT. We have identified this pool of 200 words that cut across the disciplines and lend themselves well to context-dependent interpretation. As you learn this list on Vocabulary.com, you will have to rely on context clues in order to determine each word’s meaning in particular sentences. This is the same type of thinking you will need to develop in order to succeed on the SAT! Following our Roadmap to the SAT? Head back to see what else you should be learning this week.
On the ACT Reading Test, you'll encounter questions that ask you to determine the meanings of common words in context. We've identified 200 high-frequency, multiple-meaning words of the sort that you'll see on the exam. As you practice this list, you'll have to rely on context clues in order to determine each word’s meaning in a particular sentence. Be careful! Several of a word's meanings might show up as answer choices — but only one answer will capture the meaning of the word in the context of the sentence.
Context is king -- that’s the lesson you need to internalize as you begin preparing for the vocabulary questions on the new SAT. We have identified this pool of 200 words that cut across the disciplines and lend themselves well to context-dependent interpretation. As you learn this list on Vocabulary.com, you will have to rely on context clues in order to determine each word’s meaning in particular sentences. This is the same type of thinking you will need to develop in order to succeed on the new SAT! Here are all of our word lists to help you prepare for the new SAT (debuting March of 2016): The Language of the Test, Multiple-Meaning Words, and Words to Capture Tone.