apprentice
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
10 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "apprentice", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "apprentice" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "apprentice" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
apprentice is aEnglishnoun. It means: A trainee, especially in a skilled trade. Pronounced /əˈpɹɛntɪs/.
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See how apprentice compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | apprentice |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈpɹɛntɪs/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #11,164 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for apprentice is 10 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈpɹɛntɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,164 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 13 documented wrong-spelling variants for apprentice, with forms such as "apperntice", "apprenitce", and "apprenntice". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English apprentice, apprentesse, apprentyse, apprentis, from Old French aprentis, plural of aprentif, from Old French aprendre (verb), Late Latin apprendō, from Classical Latin apprehendō. Compare typologically Latin discipulus (akin to capiō); … Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is apprentice, spelled A-P-P-R-E-N-T-I-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A trainee, especially in a skilled trade.
- 2One who is bound by indentures or by legal agreement to serve a tradesperson, or other person, for a certain time, with a view to learn the art, or trade, in which his master is bound to instruct him.
- 3One not well versed in a subject; a tyro or newbie.
Etymology
From Middle English apprentice, apprentesse, apprentyse, apprentis, from Old French aprentis, plural of aprentif, from Old French aprendre (verb), Late Latin apprendō, from Classical Latin apprehendō. Compare typologically Latin discipulus (akin to capiō); Russian схва́тывать на лету́ (sxvátyvatʹ na letú), and for another aspect быть на подхва́те (bytʹ na podxváte) (both akin to хвата́ть (xvatátʹ).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: apperntice,apprenitce,apprenntice,apprentcie,apprenticce,apprentiec,apprenttice,appretnice,apprnetice,apprrentice,aprentice,aprpentice,paprentice
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for apprentice
Misspelling Variants of "apprentice"
Frequency rank: #11,164 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index: