# attach

> English word · Verb · IPA /əˈtæt͡ʃ/ · frequency rank #10,328

## Definitions
1. To fasten, to join to (literally and figuratively).
2. To adhere; to be attached.
3. To include an attachment with a communication (especially an email or other electronic communication).
4. To come into legal operation in connection with anything; to vest.
5. To win the heart of; to connect by ties of love or self-interest; to attract; to fasten or bind by moral influence; with to.
6. To connect, in a figurative sense; to ascribe or attribute; to affix; with to.
7. To take, seize, or lay hold of.
8. To arrest, seize.

## Etymology
From Middle English attachen, from Old French atachier, variant of estachier (“bind”), derived from estache (“stick”), from Frankish *stakkā, *stakō (“stick”), from Proto-Germanic *stakô (“pole, bar, stick, stake”). Doublet of attack. More at stake, stack.
Displaced native Old English þīedan.

## Easily confused with
- **attic** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/attach-vs-attic)
- **attack** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/attach-vs-attack)
- **attain** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/attach-vs-attain)
- **Attica** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/attach-vs-attica)
- **attacks** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/attach-vs-attacks)
- **attract** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/attach-vs-attract)
- **attaché** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/attach-vs-attache)
- **attached** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/attach-vs-attached)
- **attaches** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/attach-vs-attaches)
- **atta** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/atta-vs-attach)

## Common misspellings (7)
`atach`, `atatch`, `attacch`, `attachh`, `attahc`, `attcah`, `tatach`

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