array
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "array", 5-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 "array" 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 "array" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
array is aEnglishnoun. It means: Clothing and ornamentation; raiment. Pronounced /əˈɹeɪ/. It ranks #6,023 in English word frequency. Often confused with away and aura.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | array |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈɹeɪ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #6,023 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for array is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈɹeɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,023 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for array, with forms such as "arary", "aray", and "arrayy". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "away", "aura", "Arya", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English arrayen, from Anglo-Norman arraier (compare Old French arraier, areer (“to put in order”)), from Vulgar Latin *arrēdō (“to put in order, arrange, array”), from *rēdum (“preparation, order”), from Frankish *raid or *raidā (“preparation, o… 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 array, spelled A-R-R-A-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Clothing and ornamentation; raiment.
- 2A collection laid out to be viewed in full.
- 3An orderly series, arrangement or sequence.
- 4Order; a regular and imposing arrangement; disposition in regular lines; hence, order of battle.
- 5A large collection.
- 6A matrix.
- 7Any of various data structures designed to hold multiple elements of the same type; especially, a data structure that holds these elements in adjacent memory locations so that they may be retrieved using numeric indices.
- 8A ranking or setting forth in order, by the proper officer, of a jury as impanelled in a cause; the panel itself; or the whole body of jurors summoned to attend the court.
- 9A militia.
- 10A group of hedgehogs.
- 11A microarray.
Etymology
From Middle English arrayen, from Anglo-Norman arraier (compare Old French arraier, areer (“to put in order”)), from Vulgar Latin *arrēdō (“to put in order, arrange, array”), from *rēdum (“preparation, order”), from Frankish *raid or *raidā (“preparation, order”) or Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (garaiþs, “ready, prepared”), from Proto-Germanic *raidaz, *raidiz (“ready”). Compare Old English rād (“condition, stipulation”), Old High German antreitī (“order, rank”). Doublet of ready.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: arary,aray,arrayy,arrya,raray
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for array
Misspelling Variants of "array"
Frequency rank: #6,023 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index: