dead
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "dead", 4-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 "dead" 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 "dead" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
dead is anEnglishadj. It means: No longer living; deceased. (Also used as a noun.) Pronounced /dɛd/. It ranks #652 in English word frequency. Often confused with did and DNA.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dead |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /dɛd/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #652 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dead is 4 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɛd/. Corpus data places it at rank #652 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 30 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for dead, with forms such as "daed", "ddead", and "deadd". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "did", "DNA", "del", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz. Compare West Frisian dead, dea, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish, Norwegian død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud. 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 dead, spelled D-E-A-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1No longer living; deceased. (Also used as a noun.)
- 2Devoid of living things; barren.
- 3Figuratively, not alive; lacking life.
- 4Utterly exhausted.
- 5So hated or offensive as to be absolutely shunned, ignored, or ostracized.
- 6Doomed; marked for death; as good as dead.
- 7Without emotion; impassive.
- 8Stationary; static; immobile or immovable.
- 9Without interest to one of the senses; dull; flat.
- 10Unproductive; fallow.
- 11Past, bygone, vanished.
- 12Lacking usual activity; unexpectedly quiet or empty of people.
- 13Completely inactive; currently without power; without a signal; not live.
- 14Unable to emit power, being discharged (flat) or faulty.
- 15Broken or inoperable.
- 16No longer used or required.
- 17Intentionally designed so as not to impart motion or power.
- 18Not in play.
- 19Lying so near the hole that the player is certain to hole it in the next stroke.
- 20Tagged out.
- 21Full and complete (usually applied to nouns involving lack of motion, sound, activity, or other signs of life).
- 22Exact; on the dot.
- 23Experiencing pins and needles (paresthesia).
- 24Expresses an emotional reaction associated with hyperbolic senses of die:
- 25Expresses an emotional reaction associated with hyperbolic senses of die:
- 26Constructed so as not to reflect or transmit sound; soundless; anechoic.
- 27Bringing death; deadly.
- 28Cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property.
- 29Indifferent to; having no obligation toward; no longer subject to or ruled by (sin, guilt, pleasure, etc).
- 30Of a syllable in languages such as Thai and Burmese: ending abruptly.
Etymology
From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz. Compare West Frisian dead, dea, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish, Norwegian død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: daed,ddead,deadd,deda,edad
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for dead
Misspelling Variants of "dead"
Frequency rank: #652 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter D in our English index: