capsule
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "capsule", 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 "capsule" 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 "capsule" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
capsule is aEnglishnoun. It means: A membranous envelope. Pronounced /ˈkæps(ə)l/. Often confused with castle and capture.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | capsule |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkæps(ə)l/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #11,176 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for capsule is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkæps(ə)l/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,176 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for capsule, with forms such as "acpsule", "cappsule", and "capslue". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "castle", "capture", "capable", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French capsule, from Latin capsula, diminutive of capsa (“box”). 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 capsule, spelled C-A-P-S-U-L-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A membranous envelope.
- 2A type of simple, dehiscent, dry fruit (seed-case) produced by many species of flowering plants, such as poppy, lily, orchid, willow and cotton.
- 3A sporangium, especially in bryophytes.
- 4A tough, fibrous layer surrounding an organ such as the kidney or liver
- 5A membrane that surrounds the eyeball
- 6A detachable part of a rocket or spacecraft (usually in the nose) containing the crew's living space.
- 7A small container containing a dose of medicine.
- 8in a brief, condensed or compact form
- 9The covering — formerly lead or tin, now often plastic — over the cork at the top of the wine bottle.
- 10A small clay saucer for roasting or melting samples of ores, etc.; a scorifier.
- 11A small, shallow evaporating dish, usually of porcelain.
- 12A small cup or shell, often of metal, for a percussion cap, cartridge, etc.
- 13One of the very small rooms for guests in a capsule hotel.
Etymology
Borrowed from French capsule, from Latin capsula, diminutive of capsa (“box”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acpsule,cappsule,capslue,capssule,capsuel,capsulle,capusle,caspule,ccapsule,cpasule
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for capsule
Misspelling Variants of "capsule"
Frequency rank: #11,176 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: