approval
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
8 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "approval", 8-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 "approval" 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 "approval" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
approval is aEnglishnoun. It means: An expression granting permission; an indication of agreement with a proposal; an acknowledgement that a person, thing, or event meets requirements. Pronounced /əˈpɹuːvəl/. It ranks #2,978 in English word frequency. Often confused with approve and approved.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | approval |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈpɹuːvəl/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #2,978 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for approval is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈpɹuːvəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,978 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for approval, with forms such as "apporval", "approavl", and "approvall". 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 also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "approve", "approved", "approves", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Proto-Indo-European *per-der.? Proto-Indo-European *per-der.? Proto-Indo-European *pér Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *pró Proto-Indo-European *pro-der. Proto… 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 approval, spelled A-P-P-R-O-V-A-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1An expression granting permission; an indication of agreement with a proposal; an acknowledgement that a person, thing, or event meets requirements.
- 2An expression of favorable acceptance and encouragement; a compliment that also condones.
- 3Something mailed by a seller to a collector to match their stated interests; the collector can approve of or return the item.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Proto-Indo-European *per-der.? Proto-Indo-European *per-der.? Proto-Indo-European *pér Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *pró Proto-Indo-European *pro-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-der. Proto-Italic *proβwos Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Proto-Italic *proβwāō Latin probō Latin approbōder. Old French aproverbor. Middle English aproven English approve Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English approval From approve + -al.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: apporval,approavl,approvall,approvla,approvval,apprroval,apprvoal,aproval,aprpoval,paproval
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for approval
Misspelling Variants of "approval"
Frequency rank: #2,978 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index: