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commit

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

Letters

6 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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

commit is aEnglishverb. It means: To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto. Pronounced /kəˈmɪt/. It ranks #4,067 in English word frequency. Often confused with common and cosmic.

Key facts for commit
PropertyValue
Headwordcommit
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/kəˈmɪt/
Letters6
Frequency rank#4,067
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs12
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for commit is 6 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəˈmɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,067 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for commit, with forms such as "ccommit", "cmomit", and "comimt". 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 12 confusable-pair relationships, "common", "cosmic", "commute", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English committen, itself borrowed from Latin committō (“to bring together, join, compare, commit (a wrong), incur, give in charge, etc.”), from com- (“together”) + mittō (“to send”). See mission. 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 commit, spelled C-O-M-M-I-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto.
  2. 2
    To imprison: to forcibly place in a jail.
  3. 3
    To forcibly evaluate and treat in a medical facility, particularly for presumed mental illness.
  4. 4
    To do (something bad); to perpetrate, as a crime, sin, or fault.
  5. 5
    To pledge or bind; to compromise, expose, or endanger by some decisive act or preliminary step. (Traditionally used only reflexively but now also without oneself etc.)
  6. 6
    To make a set of changes permanent.
  7. 7
    To integrate new revisions into the public or master version of a file in a version control system.
  8. 8
    To enter into a contest; to match; often followed by with.
  9. 9
    To confound.
  10. 10
    To commit an offence; especially, to fornicate.
  11. 11
    To be committed or perpetrated; to take place; to occur.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English committen, itself borrowed from Latin committō (“to bring together, join, compare, commit (a wrong), incur, give in charge, etc.”), from com- (“together”) + mittō (“to send”). See mission.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ccommit,cmomit,comimt,comit,committ,commti,ocmmit

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for commit

Misspelling Variants of "commit"

ccommit7cmomit6comimt6comit5committ7commti6ocmmit6
Misspelling Variants of "commit"

Frequency rank: #4,067 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "commit"?
"commit" is spelled C-O-M-M-I-T. The IPA pronunciation is /kəˈmɪt/.
What does "commit" mean?
As a verb, "commit" means: To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto.
What words are commonly confused with "commit"?
"commit" is commonly confused with "common", "cosmic", "commute". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "commit"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "commit" is /kəˈmɪt/. 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 "commit"?
Inherited from Middle English committen, itself borrowed from Latin committō (“to bring together, join, compare, commit (a wrong), incur, give in charge, etc.”), from com- (“together”) + mittō (“to send”). See mission. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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.