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talk down to

verb/tɔːk daʊn tə/

B1CEFR level
25/100Rarity: fairly common
NeutralRegister

To speak to someone as though they are less intelligent or important than you.

Good teachers explain complex ideas simply without ever talking down to their students.

Similar: patronise, condescend to

Topic: Idioms & phrasal verbs 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: Idioms & phrasal verbs