client
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "client", 6-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 "client" 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 "client" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
client is aEnglishnoun. It means: A customer, a buyer or receiver of goods or services. Pronounced /ˈklaɪ.ənt/. It ranks #2,780 in English word frequency. Often confused with clit and Clint.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | client |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈklaɪ.ənt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #2,780 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for client is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈklaɪ.ənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,780 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 6 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 client, with forms such as "cclient", "cilent", and "cleint". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "clit", "Clint", "cling", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English client, from Anglo-Norman clyent, Old French client, from Latin cliēns, akin to clinare (“to lean”). 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 client, spelled C-L-I-E-N-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A customer, a buyer or receiver of goods or services.
- 2The role of a computer application or system that requests and/or consumes the services provided by another having the role of server.
- 3A person who receives help or services from a professional such as a lawyer or accountant.
- 4A person who employs or retains an attorney to represent him or her in any legal matter, or one who merely divulges confidential matters to an attorney while pursuing professional assistance without subsequently retaining the attorney.
- 5In ancient Rome, retainers and followers associated with a gens.
- 6Ellipsis of client state.
Etymology
From Middle English client, from Anglo-Norman clyent, Old French client, from Latin cliēns, akin to clinare (“to lean”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cclient,cilent,cleint,cliennt,clientt,clietn,clinet,cllient,lcient
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for client
Misspelling Variants of "client"
Frequency rank: #2,780 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: