down-to-earth.

Practical, sensible, and free from unnecessary pretension.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• down-to-earth advice
• a down-to-earth manner

On the page

After the visionary speeches, her down-to-earth questions brought the meeting back to costs.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Comparative more down-to-earth; superlative most down-to-earth when comparison is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: description, character. Commonness: moderately common.