code
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "code", 4-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 "code" 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 "code" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
code is aEnglishnoun. It means: A short textual designation, often with little relation to the item it represents. Pronounced /kəʊd/. It ranks #863 in English word frequency. Often confused with cop and con.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | code |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəʊd/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #863 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for code is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəʊd/. Corpus data places it at rank #863 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 4 documented wrong-spelling variants for code, with forms such as "ccode", "cdoe", and "codde". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cop", "con", "cow", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English code (“system of law”), from Old French code (“system of law”), from Latin cōdex, later form of caudex (“the stock or stem of a tree, a board or tablet of wood smeared over with wax, on which the ancients originally wrote; hence, a book,… 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 code, spelled C-O-D-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A short textual designation, often with little relation to the item it represents.
- 2A body of law, sanctioned by legislation, in which the rules of law to be specifically applied by the courts are set forth in systematic form; a compilation of laws by public authority; a digest.
- 3Any system of principles, rules or regulations relating to one subject.
- 4A set of rules for converting information into another form or representation.
- 5A set of rules for converting information into another form or representation.
- 6A message represented by rules intended to conceal its meaning.
- 7A cryptographic system using a codebook that converts words or phrases into codewords.
- 8Instructions for a computer, written in a programming language; the input of a translator, an interpreter or a browser, namely: source code, machine code, bytecode.
- 9A program.
- 10A particular lect or language variety.
- 11An emergency requiring situation-trained members of the staff.
- 12A set of unwritten rules that bind a social group.
Etymology
From Middle English code (“system of law”), from Old French code (“system of law”), from Latin cōdex, later form of caudex (“the stock or stem of a tree, a board or tablet of wood smeared over with wax, on which the ancients originally wrote; hence, a book, a writing.”). Doublet of codex. Verb etymology 1 sense 7 is an ellipsis of code blue (“medical emergency”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccode,cdoe,codde,ocde
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for code
Misspelling Variants of "code"
Frequency rank: #863 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: