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comedy

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

6 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "comedy", 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 "comedy" 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 "comedy" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

comedy is aEnglishnoun. It means: a choric song of celebration or revel, especially in Ancient Greece Pronounced /ˈkɒmɪdi/. It ranks #2,934 in English word frequency. Often confused with comes and Corey.

Key facts for comedy
PropertyValue
Headwordcomedy
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈkɒmɪdi/
Letters6
Frequency rank#2,934
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs17
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of comedy in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for comedy is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkɒmɪdi/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,934 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 8 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 comedy, with forms such as "ccomedy", "cmoedy", and "coemdy". 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 17 confusable-pair relationships, "comes", "Corey", "comet", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English comedie, from Middle French comedie, from Latin cōmoedia, from Ancient Greek κωμῳδία (kōmōidía), from κῶμος (kômos, “revel, carousing”) + either ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”) or ἀοιδός (aoidós, “singer, bard”), both from ἀείδω (aeídō, “to sing”). D… 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 comedy, spelled C-O-M-E-D-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    a choric song of celebration or revel, especially in Ancient Greece
  2. 2
    a light, amusing play with a happy ending
  3. 3
    a narrative poem with an agreeable ending (e.g., The Divine Comedy)
  4. 4
    a dramatic work that is light and humorous or satirical in tone
  5. 5
    the genre of such works
  6. 6
    entertainment composed of jokes, satire, or humorous performance
  7. 7
    the art of composing comedy
  8. 8
    a humorous event

Etymology

From Middle English comedie, from Middle French comedie, from Latin cōmoedia, from Ancient Greek κωμῳδία (kōmōidía), from κῶμος (kômos, “revel, carousing”) + either ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”) or ἀοιδός (aoidós, “singer, bard”), both from ἀείδω (aeídō, “to sing”). Doublet of commedia.

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ccomedy,cmoedy,coemdy,comdey,comeddy,comedyy,comeyd,commedy,ocmedy

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for comedy

Misspelling Variants of "comedy"

ccomedy7cmoedy6coemdy6comdey6comeddy7comedyy7comeyd6commedy7
Misspelling Variants of "comedy"

Frequency rank: #2,934 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "comedy"?
"comedy" is spelled C-O-M-E-D-Y. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈkɒmɪdi/.
What does "comedy" mean?
As a noun, "comedy" means: a choric song of celebration or revel, especially in Ancient Greece
What words are commonly confused with "comedy"?
"comedy" is commonly confused with "comes", "Corey", "comet". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "comedy"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "comedy" is /ˈkɒmɪdi/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "comedy"?
From Middle English comedie, from Middle French comedie, from Latin cōmoedia, from Ancient Greek κωμῳδία (kōmōidía), from κῶμος (kômos, “revel, carousing”) + either ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”) or ἀοιδός (aoidós, “singer, bard”), both from ἀείδω (aeídō, “to... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.