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battery

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

7 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "battery", 7-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 "battery" 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 "battery" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

battery is aEnglishnoun. It means: A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells. Pronounced /ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi/. It ranks #2,877 in English word frequency. Often confused with batty and better.

Key facts for battery
PropertyValue
Headwordbattery
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi/
Letters7
Frequency rank#2,877
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs16
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of battery in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for battery is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,877 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for battery, with forms such as "abttery", "batery", and "batetry". 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 16 confusable-pair relationships, "batty", "better", "butter", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (“action of beating”), from batre (“beat”), from Latin battuō (“beat”), from Gaulish. Doublet of batterie. By surface analysis, batter + -y. The electrical sense was coined by American polymath B… 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 battery, spelled B-A-T-T-E-R-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells.
  2. 2
    A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells.
  3. 3
    The energy stored in such a device.
  4. 4
    The infliction of unlawful physical violence on a person, legally distinguished from assault, which involves the threat of impending violence.
  5. 5
    A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns.
  6. 6
    A coordinated group of artillery weapons, with any of various numbers of guns.
  7. 7
    An elevated platform on which cannon could be placed.
  8. 8
    An array of similar things.
  9. 9
    A set of small cages where hens are kept for the purpose of farming their eggs.
  10. 10
    The catcher and the pitcher together
  11. 11
    Two or more pieces working together on the same rank, file, or diagonal
  12. 12
    A marching percussion ensemble; the section of the drumline that marches on the field during a performance.
  13. 13
    The state of a firearm or cannon when it is possible to be fired.
  14. 14
    Apparatus for preparing or serving meals.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (“action of beating”), from batre (“beat”), from Latin battuō (“beat”), from Gaulish. Doublet of batterie. By surface analysis, batter + -y. The electrical sense was coined by American polymath Benjamin Franklin by analogy with a military battery that his series of Leyden jars resembled.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: abttery,batery,batetry,batterry,batteryy,batteyr,battrey,bbattery,btatery

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for battery

Misspelling Variants of "battery"

abttery7batery6batetry7batterry8batteryy8batteyr7battrey7bbattery8
Misspelling Variants of "battery"

Frequency rank: #2,877 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "battery"?
"battery" is spelled B-A-T-T-E-R-Y. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi/.
What does "battery" mean?
As a noun, "battery" means: A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells.
What words are commonly confused with "battery"?
"battery" is commonly confused with "batty", "better", "butter". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "battery"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "battery" is /ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "battery"?
Borrowed from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (“action of beating”), from batre (“beat”), from Latin battuō (“beat”), from Gaulish. Doublet of batterie. By surface analysis, batter + -y. The electrical sense was coined by American ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.