# archetype

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈɑːkɪtaɪp/ · frequency rank #30,314

## Definitions
1. An original model of which all other similar concepts, objects, or persons are merely copied, derivative, emulated, or patterned.
2. An ideal example of something; a quintessence.
3. A character, object, or story that is based on a known character, object, or story.
4. According to Swiss psychologist Carl Jung: a universal pattern of thought, present in an individual's unconscious, inherited from the past collective experience of humanity.
5. A protograph (“original manuscript of a text from which all further copies derive”).

## Etymology
From Old French architipe (modern French archétype), from Latin archetypum (“original”), from Ancient Greek ἀρχέτυπον (arkhétupon, “model, pattern”), the neuter form of ἀρχέτυπος (arkhétupos, “first-moulded”), from ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “beginning, origin”) (from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to begin; to lead, rule”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin; to command, rule”)) + τῠ́πος (tŭ́pos, “blow, pressing; sort, type”) (from τύπτω (túptō, “to beat, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- (“to push; to stick”)).

## Easily confused with
- **archetypal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/archetypal-vs-archetype)

## Common misspellings (14)
`acrhetype`, `arcchetype`, `arcehtype`, `archetpye`, `archettype`, `archetyep`, `archetyppe`, `archetyype`, `archeytpe`, `archhetype`, `archteype`, `arhcetype`, `arrchetype`, `rachetype`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/archetype