command
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 "command", 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 "command" 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 "command" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
command is aEnglishnoun. It means: An order to do something. Pronounced /kəˈmɑːnd/. It ranks #2,032 in English word frequency. Often confused with common and conman.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | command |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəˈmɑːnd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #2,032 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 14 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for command is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəˈmɑːnd/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,032 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 10 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 command, with forms such as "ccommand", "cmomand", and "comamnd". 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 14 confusable-pair relationships, "common", "conman", "company", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh₂-der. Proto-Italic *manus Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁tder. Proto-Italic *-ðō Proto-Italic … 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 command, spelled C-O-M-M-A-N-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1An order to do something.
- 2The right or authority to order, control or dispose of; the right to be obeyed or to compel obedience.
- 3power of control, direction or disposal; mastery.
- 4A position of chief authority; a position involving the right or power to order or control.
- 5The act of commanding; exercise or authority of influence.
- 6A body or troops, or any naval or military force, under the control of a particular officer; by extension, any object or body in someone's charge.
- 7Dominating situation; range or control or oversight; extent of view or outlook.
- 8A directive to a computer program acting as an interpreter of some kind, in order to perform a specific task.
- 9The degree of control a pitcher has over his pitches.
- 10A command performance.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh₂-der. Proto-Italic *manus Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁tder. Proto-Italic *-ðō Proto-Italic *manuðō Latin mandō Latin commendō ▲ Latin mandōinflu. Latin commandāre Old French comanderbor. Middle English comaunden English command From Middle English commanden, commaunden, comaunden, comanden, from Old French comander, from Late Latin commandāre, from Latin commendāre. Ultimately from Latin com- + mandō (whence ultimately also commend (a doublet), mandate, and recommend), from manus + -dō. Compare typologically Russian поручи́ть (poručítʹ), поруче́ние (poručénije), руководи́ть (rukovodítʹ), руководи́тель (rukovodítelʹ) related to рука́ (ruká).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccommand,cmomand,comamnd,comand,commadn,commandd,commannd,commnad,ocmmand
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for command
Misspelling Variants of "command"
Frequency rank: #2,032 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: