deadline
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
8 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "deadline", 8-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 "deadline" 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 "deadline" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
deadline is aEnglishnoun. It means: A time limit in the form of a date on or before which something must be completed. Pronounced /ˈdɛdˌlaɪn/. It ranks #5,871 in English word frequency. Often confused with dealing and decline.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | deadline |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdɛdˌlaɪn/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #5,871 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for deadline is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdɛdˌlaɪn/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,871 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 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for deadline, with forms such as "daedline", "ddeadline", and "deaddline". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "dealing", "decline", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, early usage refers to lines that do not move, such as one used in angling. Slightly later American usage refers to a boundary in a prison which prisoners must not cross. There is only indirect evidence that the se… 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 deadline, spelled D-E-A-D-L-I-N-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A time limit in the form of a date on or before which something must be completed.
- 2A guideline marked on a plate for a printing press.
- 3A line that does not move.
- 4A boundary around a prison, prisoners crossing which would be shot.
Etymology
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, early usage refers to lines that do not move, such as one used in angling. Slightly later American usage refers to a boundary in a prison which prisoners must not cross. There is only indirect evidence that the sense of "due date" may be connected with this use of the term in prison camps during the American Civil War, when it referred to a physical line or boundary beyond which prisoners were shot. In 1904, in a report from the US Department of Commerce and Labor, the term is used for "minimum work goals" (and in contrast to bonus line): for example, as a typographer the line could be 18,000 ems per day; should one not cross this line, then that could have negative consequences. In 1917, the term is attested as a printing term for a guideline on the bed of a printing press beyond which text will not print. Three years later, the term is found in print in the sense of "time limit" in the closely connected publishing industry, indicating the time after which material would not make it into a newspaper or periodical.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: daedline,ddeadline,deaddline,deadilne,deadlien,deadlinne,deadlline,deadlnie,dealdine,dedaline,edadline
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for deadline
Misspelling Variants of "deadline"
Frequency rank: #5,871 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "deadline"?
What does "deadline" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "deadline"?
How do you pronounce "deadline"?
What is the origin of the word "deadline"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter D in our English index: