appropriate
/əˈpɹəʊ.pɹi.eɪt/
"appropriate" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“appropriate” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,145 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #2,145
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | appropriate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /əˈpɹəʊ.pɹi.eɪt/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #2,145 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “appropriate” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for appropriate is 11 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈpɹəʊ.pɹi.eɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,145 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for appropriate, with forms such as "apporpriate", "appropirate", and "approppriate". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "appropriately", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English appropriaten, from appropriat (“appropriated”) + -en, borrowed from Latin appropriātus, perfect passive participle of appropriō (“to make one's own”), from ad (“to”) + propriō (“to make one's own”), from proprius (“one's own, private”) +… The correct English form is appropriate, spelled A-P-P-R-O-P-R-I-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1To take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right.
- 2To set apart for, or assign to, a particular person or use, especially in exclusion of all others; with to or for.
- 3To annex (for example a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property).
- 4To make suitable to; to suit.
Etymology
From Middle English appropriaten, from appropriat (“appropriated”) + -en, borrowed from Latin appropriātus, perfect passive participle of appropriō (“to make one's own”), from ad (“to”) + propriō (“to make one's own”), from proprius (“one's own, private”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: apporpriate,appropirate,approppriate,appropraite,appropriaet,appropriatte,appropritae,approprriate,approrpiate,apprporiate,apprropriate,apropriate,aprpopriate,papropriate
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of appropriate - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “appropriate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-P-P-R-O-P-R-I-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈpɹəʊ.pɹi.eɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “appropriately” - see the side-by-side comparison. appropriate vs appropriately
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.