English Word Reference Free

dissemble

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

Letters

9 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

open dictionary

Access

Free

no sign-up needed

Detailed reference entry for the English word "dissemble", 9-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 "dissemble" 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 "dissemble" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

dissemble is aEnglishverb. It means: To disguise or conceal something. Pronounced /dɪˈsɛmbəl/.

Compare similar words

See how dissemble compares against similar English words.

Browse all word comparisons →
Key facts for dissemble
PropertyValue
Headworddissemble
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/dɪˈsɛmbəl/
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

dissemble is not present in the top-100,000 ranked English corpus, typical for technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary.

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for dissemble is 9 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɪˈsɛmbəl/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for dissemble in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in the beginning of the 15th century, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English dissemblen, dissimblen, dissemelen, borrowed from Old French dessambler, dissembler, disembler, itself borrowed from Latin dissimulō and modified after sem… 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 dissemble, spelled D-I-S-S-E-M-B-L-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    To disguise or conceal something.
  2. 2
    To feign, dissimulate.
  3. 3
    To deliberately ignore something; to pretend not to notice.
  4. 4
    To falsely hide one's opinions or feelings.

Etymology

First attested in the beginning of the 15th century, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English dissemblen, dissimblen, dissemelen, borrowed from Old French dessambler, dissembler, disembler, itself borrowed from Latin dissimulō and modified after sembler, semblance, etc. Doublet of dissimulate, dissimilate, and dissimule.

This word in other languages

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "dissemble"?
"dissemble" is spelled D-I-S-S-E-M-B-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is /dɪˈsɛmbəl/.
What does "dissemble" mean?
As a verb, "dissemble" means: To disguise or conceal something.
How do you pronounce "dissemble"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "dissemble" is /dɪˈsɛmbəl/. 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 "dissemble"?
First attested in the beginning of the 15th century, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English dissemblen, dissimblen, dissemelen, borrowed from Old French dessambler, dissembler, disembler, itself borrowed from Latin dissimulō and modified... 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 D in our English index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.