contribute
con·trib·ute/kənˈt(ʃ)ɹɪb.juːt/verb
contribute is spelled C-O-N-T-R-I-B-U-T-E, 3 syllables: con·trib·ute. The wrong spelling people search most is contibute: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 133 of all searches for the word. Contribute is a verb meaning “To give something that is or becomes part of a larger whole”.
How many letters and syllables are in contribute?
| Letters | 10: C-O-N-T-R-I-B-U-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: con·trib·ute |
| In writing | 22 times per million words; the 4,015th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, contibute, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell contribute?
Contribute is spelled C-O-N-T-R-I-B-U-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 134 of the searches for contribute in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is contribute?
Contribute appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 4,015th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce contribute?
- UK /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹɪb.juːt/
- UK /ˈkɒn.t(ʃ)ɹɪˌbjuːt/
- British /kənˈt͡ʃɹɪbjʉwt/
Contribute has 3 syllables, split con·trib·ute in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-GB-contribute.ogg, En-us-contribute.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of contribute
- contributes present, singular, he/she/it
- contributing participle, present
- contributed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does contribute mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To give something that is or becomes part of a larger whole.
to contribute money to a church fund
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Contribute in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to give something, that is or becomes part of a larger whole:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | contribuer |
| German | beisteuern, beitragen |
| Portuguese | contribuir |
| Spanish | contribuir, aportar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does contribute come from?
From Latin contribūtus, perfect passive participle of contribuō (“to bring together; to unite”), from con- (“together”) + tribuō (“to bestow”), from tribus (“tribe”), derived from trēs (“three”), from Proto-Italic *trēs, from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).