christmas
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
9 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "christmas", 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 "christmas" 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 "christmas" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
Christmas is aEnglishname. It means: A festival or holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ and incorporating various Christian, pre-Christian, pagan, and secular customs, which in Western Christianity is celebrated on December... Pronounced /ˈkɹɪsməs/. It ranks #1,297 in English word frequency. Often confused with Xmas and Christa.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Christmas |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Name |
| IPA | /ˈkɹɪsməs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #1,297 |
| Misspellings tracked | 15 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Christmas is 9 letters long, classified as aname, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkɹɪsməs/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,297 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 15 documented wrong-spelling variants for Christmas, with forms such as "cchristmas", "chhristmas", and "chirstmas". 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, "Xmas", "Christa", "Christian", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The proper noun is derived from Middle English Cristemasse, Criste-mas (“Christmas Day; season of Christmas; Christmas festivities”) [and other forms], from Old English Cristes mæsse (“Christmas”, literally “Christ’s mass”), from Crist (“Christ”) + -es (pos… 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 Christmas, spelled C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A festival or holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ and incorporating various Christian, pre-Christian, pagan, and secular customs, which in Western Christianity is celebrated on December 25 (Christmas Day) in most places.
- 2Ellipsis of Christmas season (“the period of time before and after Christmas Day, during which people prepare for and celebrate Christmas”); Christmastime.
- 3A number of places in the United States:
- 4A number of places in the United States:
- 5A number of places in the United States:
- 6A number of places in the United States:
- 7A surname.
Etymology
The proper noun is derived from Middle English Cristemasse, Criste-mas (“Christmas Day; season of Christmas; Christmas festivities”) [and other forms], from Old English Cristes mæsse (“Christmas”, literally “Christ’s mass”), from Crist (“Christ”) + -es (possessive marker) + mæsse (“a mass (celebration of the Eucharist)”). The English word is analysable as Christ + -mas (suffix denoting a holiday or sacred day). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Kristmisse (“Christmas”), West Frisian Krystmis (“Christmas”), Dutch Kerstmis (“Christmas”), German Low German Karstmis (“Christmas”). The noun, adjective, and verb are derived from the proper noun. Adjective etymology 1 sense 1 (“red and green in color”) refers to these colors being traditionally associated with Christmas.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cchristmas,chhristmas,chirstmas,chrismtas,chrisstmas,christams,christmass,christmmas,christmsa,christtmas,chritsmas,chrristmas,chrsitmas,crhistmas,hcristmas
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for Christmas
Misspelling Variants of "Christmas"
Frequency rank: #1,297 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: