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scoff

verb/skɒf/

B1CEFR level
35/100Rarity: fairly common
NeutralRegister

To speak about someone or something with scornful mockery.

Critics scoffed at the idea, then queued to invest once it succeeded.

Similar: sneer, deride, mock

Origin: From Scandinavian, compare Old Norse skaup mockery.

Topic: mockery in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More general words: mockery