cambridge
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
9 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "cambridge", 9-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 "cambridge" 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 "cambridge" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
Cambridge is aEnglishname. It means: A city and local government district with borough status of Cambridgeshire, England, famous for its university. Pronounced /ˈkeɪm.bɹɪd͡ʒ/. It ranks #3,675 in English word frequency. Often confused with cartridge.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Cambridge |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Name |
| IPA | /ˈkeɪm.bɹɪd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #3,675 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Cambridge is 9 letters long, classified as aname, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkeɪm.bɹɪd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,675 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 14 documented wrong-spelling variants for Cambridge, with forms such as "acmbridge", "cabmridge", and "cambbridge". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "cartridge", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English Cantebrigge, Grentebrige, from Old English Grante bryċġ, Granta-briċġ, Grantanbryċġ (“Granta bridge”). The river name Granta is probably of Celtic origin. By Middle English when the name of the settlement had changed to "Cantebrigge" and… 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 Cambridge, spelled C-A-M-B-R-I-D-G-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A city and local government district with borough status of Cambridgeshire, England, famous for its university.
- 2Ellipsis of University of Cambridge.
- 3A village in Slimbridge parish, Stroud district, Gloucestershire, England, situated on the local River Cam (OS grid ref SO7403).
- 4A city in Washington County, Idaho, United States.
- 5A village, the county seat of Henry County, Illinois, United States.
- 6A city, the county seat of Dorchester County, Maryland, United States.
- 7A city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, famous for being the location of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was formerly one of the county seats.
- 8A city, the county seat of Isanti County, Minnesota, United States.
- 9A city, the county seat of Guernsey County, Ohio, United States.
- 10A town and village in Lamoille County, Vermont, United States.
- 11A city in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
- 12A local government area (the Town of Cambridge) in Perth, Western Australia.
- 13A suburb of the City of Clarence, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
- 14A town in Waikato, New Zealand.
- 15A royal dukedom.
Etymology
From Middle English Cantebrigge, Grentebrige, from Old English Grante bryċġ, Granta-briċġ, Grantanbryċġ (“Granta bridge”). The river name Granta is probably of Celtic origin. By Middle English when the name of the settlement had changed to "Cantebrigge" and eventually "Cambridge", the lower stretches of the River Granta were renamed Cam by back-formation from Cambridge.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acmbridge,cabmridge,cambbridge,cambirdge,cambrdige,cambriddge,cambrideg,cambridgge,cambrigde,cambrridge,cammbridge,camrbidge,ccambridge,cmabridge
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for Cambridge
Misspelling Variants of "Cambridge"
Frequency rank: #3,675 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: