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credit

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 "credit", 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 "credit" 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 "credit" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

credit is aEnglishverb. It means: To believe; to put credence in. Pronounced /ˈkɹɛdɪt/. It ranks #1,072 in English word frequency. Often confused with crit and crest.

Key facts for credit
PropertyValue
Headwordcredit
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/ˈkɹɛdɪt/
Letters6
Frequency rank#1,072
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs8
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for credit is 6 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkɹɛdɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,072 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 4 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 credit, with forms such as "ccredit", "cerdit", and "crdeit". 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 8 confusable-pair relationships, "crit", "crest", "crept", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French crédit (“belief, trust”), from Latin crēditum (“a loan, credit”), neuter of crēditus, past participle of crēdere (“to believe”). The verb is from the noun. Doublet of shraddha, creed. 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 credit, spelled C-R-E-D-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 believe; to put credence in.
  2. 2
    To add to an account.
  3. 3
    To acknowledge the contribution of.
  4. 4
    To bring honour or repute upon; to do credit to; to raise the estimation of.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French crédit (“belief, trust”), from Latin crēditum (“a loan, credit”), neuter of crēditus, past participle of crēdere (“to believe”). The verb is from the noun. Doublet of shraddha, creed.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ccredit,cerdit,crdeit,creddit,creditt,credti,creidt,crredit,rcedit

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for credit

Misspelling Variants of "credit"

ccredit7cerdit6crdeit6creddit7creditt7credti6creidt6crredit7
Misspelling Variants of "credit"

Frequency rank: #1,072 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "credit"?
"credit" is spelled C-R-E-D-I-T. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈkɹɛdɪt/.
What does "credit" mean?
As a verb, "credit" means: To believe; to put credence in.
What words are commonly confused with "credit"?
"credit" is commonly confused with "crit", "crest", "crept". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "credit"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "credit" is /ˈkɹɛdɪt/. 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 "credit"?
Borrowed from Middle French crédit (“belief, trust”), from Latin crēditum (“a loan, credit”), neuter of crēditus, past participle of crēdere (“to believe”). The verb is from the noun. Doublet of shraddha, creed. 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.