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bookmark

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

Letters

8 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "bookmark", 8-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "bookmark" 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 "bookmark" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

bookmark is aEnglishnoun. It means: A strip of material used to mark a place in a book. Pronounced /ˈbʊk.mɑː(ɹ)k/.

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Key facts for bookmark
PropertyValue
Headwordbookmark
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈbʊk.mɑː(ɹ)k/
Letters8
Frequency rank#27,382
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for bookmark is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbʊk.mɑː(ɹ)k/. Corpus data places it at rank #27,382 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for bookmark, with forms such as "bbookmark", "bokmark", and "bokomark". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English *boke-merk, *boke-merke (attested only in the bare form merk (“bookmark”)), equivalent to book + mark. Cognate with Danish bogmærke (“bookmark”), Swedish bokmärke (“bookmark”), Norwegian bokmerke (“bookmark”), Icelandic bókamerki (“bookm… 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 bookmark, spelled B-O-O-K-M-A-R-K, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A strip of material used to mark a place in a book.
  2. 2
    A record of the address of a file or Internet page, serving as a shortcut to it.
  3. 3
    A pointer found in a nonclustered index to a row in a clustered index or a table heap

Etymology

From Middle English *boke-merk, *boke-merke (attested only in the bare form merk (“bookmark”)), equivalent to book + mark. Cognate with Danish bogmærke (“bookmark”), Swedish bokmärke (“bookmark”), Norwegian bokmerke (“bookmark”), Icelandic bókamerki (“bookmark”). Eclipsed non-native Old English æstel (“bookmark”), from Old Irish astal, from Latin hastula (“little spear, splint”).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: bbookmark,bokmark,bokomark,bookamrk,bookkmark,bookmakr,bookmarkk,bookmarrk,bookmmark,bookmrak,boomkark,obokmark

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for bookmark

Misspelling Variants of "bookmark"

bbookmark9bokmark7bokomark8bookamrk8bookkmark9bookmakr8bookmarkk9bookmarrk9
Misspelling Variants of "bookmark"

Frequency rank: #27,382 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bookmark"?
"bookmark" is spelled B-O-O-K-M-A-R-K. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈbʊk.mɑː(ɹ)k/.
What does "bookmark" mean?
As a noun, "bookmark" means: A strip of material used to mark a place in a book.
What are common misspellings of "bookmark"?
Common misspellings include "bbookmark", "bokmark", "bokomark", "bookamrk", "bookkmark". The correct spelling is "bookmark".
How do you pronounce "bookmark"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bookmark" is /ˈbʊk.mɑː(ɹ)k/. 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 "bookmark"?
From Middle English *boke-merk, *boke-merke (attested only in the bare form merk (“bookmark”)), equivalent to book + mark. Cognate with Danish bogmærke (“bookmark”), Swedish bokmärke (“bookmark”), Norwegian bokmerke (“bookmark”), Icelandic bókamer... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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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. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.