divide
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "divide", 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 "divide" 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 "divide" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
divide is aEnglishverb. It means: To split or separate (something) into two or more parts. Pronounced /dɪˈvaɪd/. It ranks #5,876 in English word frequency. Often confused with Dixie and divine.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | divide |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /dɪˈvaɪd/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #5,876 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for divide is 6 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɪˈvaɪd/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,876 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for divide, with forms such as "ddivide", "diivde", and "divdie". 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 15 confusable-pair relationships, "Dixie", "divine", "diving", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dews-? Proto-Indo-European *dus- Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *dwi- Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *dwís Latin dis- ▲ Proto-Indo-European *dwi- Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-Euro… 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 divide, spelled D-I-V-I-D-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.
- 2To share (something) by dividing it.
- 3To cause (a group of people) to disagree.
- 4To calculate the number (the quotient) by which you must multiply one given number (the divisor) to produce a second given number (the dividend).
- 5To be a divisor of.
- 6To separate into two or more parts.
- 7Of a cell, to reproduce by dividing.
- 8To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.
- 9To break friendship; to fall out.
- 10To have a share; to partake.
- 11To vote, as in the British parliament and other legislatures, by the members separating themselves into two parties (as on opposite sides of the hall or in opposite lobbies), that is, the ayes dividing from the noes.
- 12To mark divisions on; to graduate.
- 13To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dews-? Proto-Indo-European *dus- Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *dwi- Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *dwís Latin dis- ▲ Proto-Indo-European *dwi- Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁-der. Proto-Italic *wiðō Latin *vidō Latin dīvidōder. Middle English dividen English divide PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English dividen, from Latin dīvidere (“to divide”). Displaced native Old English tōdǣlan.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddivide,diivde,divdie,divied,divvide,dviide,idvide
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for divide
Misspelling Variants of "divide"
Frequency rank: #5,876 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter D in our English index: