Skip to main content
PlainSpell

attribute

at·tri·bute/ˈæt.ɹɪˌbjut/noun, verb

attribute is spelled A-T-T-R-I-B-U-T-E, 3 syllables: at·tri·bute. The wrong spelling people search most is atribute: about 80 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 23 of all searches for the word. Attribute is a noun meaning “A characteristic or quality of a thing”. The plural of attribute is attributes.

How many letters and syllables are in attribute?

Letters9: A-T-T-R-I-B-U-T-E
Syllables3: at·tri·bute
In writing5.9 times per million words; the 10,028th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, atribute, about 80 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell attribute?

Attribute is spelled A-T-T-R-I-B-U-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 23 of the searches for attribute in either form.

attributethe right spelling1,720 searches a month
atributea missing t80 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is attribute?

Attribute appears 5.9 times per million words in written English, the 10,028th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce attribute?

  • UK /ˈæt.ɹɪ.bjuːt/
  • US /ˈæt.ɹɪˌbjut/

As a verb (“To ascribe (something) to a given cause, reason etc.; to…”): /əˈtɹɪb.juːt/, /əˈtɹɪbˌjut/.

Attribute has 3 syllables, split at·tri·bute in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-attribute-noun.ogg, En-us-attribute-verb.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of attribute

  • attributes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • attributing participle, present
  • attributed participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does attribute mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A characteristic or quality of a thing.

    His finest attribute is his kindness.

  2. 2

    An object that is considered typical of someone or some function, in particular as an artistic convention.

    The eagle and the bolt of lightning are attributes of Jove.

  3. 3

    A word that qualifies a noun.

  4. 4

    That which is predicated or affirmed of a subject; a predicate; an accident.

  5. 5

    An option or setting belonging to some object.

    This packet has its coherency attribute set to zero.

  6. 6

    A semantic item with which a method or other code element may be decorated.

    Properties can be marked as obsolete with an attribute, which will cause the compiler to generate a warning if they are used.

  7. 7

    datedA numeric value representing the colours of part of the screen display.

    […] you can only carry two objects, your attributes clash when you walk past multi-coloured objects and your enemies fly up and down from the ceiling.

verb

  1. 1

    To ascribe (something) to a given cause, reason etc.; to affix.

  2. 2

    To associate ownership or authorship of (something) to someone.

    This poem is attributed to Browning.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Attribute in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchattribut (characteristic or quality), épithète f or déterminant, depending on which class it belongs (grammar: word qualifying a noun), propriété (computing: the applicable option selection), attribuer (2. (transitive) To associate ownership or…)
GermanEigenschaft, Merkmal (characteristic or quality), Attribut, Beifügung (grammar: word qualifying a noun), zuschreiben (2. (transitive) To associate ownership or…)
Portugueseatributo (characteristic or quality), atribuir (2. (transitive) To associate ownership or…)
Spanishatributo (characteristic or quality), atribuir, tribuir (1. (transitive) To ascribe (something) to a…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does attribute come from?

Borrowed from Latin attributus.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after attribute