drop
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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4 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "drop", 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 "drop" 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 "drop" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
drop is aEnglishnoun. It means: A small quantity of liquid, just large enough to hold its own rounded shape through surface tension, especially one that falls from a source of liquid. Pronounced /dɹɒp/. It ranks #1,103 in English word frequency. Often confused with dry and duo.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | drop |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dɹɒp/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,103 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for drop is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɹɒp/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,103 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 44 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for drop, with forms such as "ddrop", "dorp", and "dropp". 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, "dry", "duo", "dup", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *dropōn Old English dropian Middle English droppen Proto-Indo-European *dʰrbʰ-néh₂- Proto-Indo-European *dʰrebʰ- Proto-Germanic *dreupaną Proto-Germanic *druppōną Proto-Germanic *drupô Proto-West Germanic *dropō Old Englis… 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 drop, spelled D-R-O-P, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A small quantity of liquid, just large enough to hold its own rounded shape through surface tension, especially one that falls from a source of liquid.
- 2A small quantity of liquid, just large enough to hold its own rounded shape through surface tension, especially one that falls from a source of liquid.
- 3A small quantity of liquid, just large enough to hold its own rounded shape through surface tension, especially one that falls from a source of liquid.
- 4A very small quantity of liquid, or (by extension) of anything.
- 5A very small quantity of liquid, or (by extension) of anything.
- 6A very small quantity of liquid, or (by extension) of anything.
- 7A very small quantity of liquid, or (by extension) of anything.
- 8That which hangs or resembles a liquid globule, such as a hanging diamond earring or ornament, a glass pendant on a chandelier, etc.
- 9That which hangs or resembles a liquid globule, such as a hanging diamond earring or ornament, a glass pendant on a chandelier, etc.
- 10A thing which drops or hangs down.
- 11A thing which drops or hangs down.
- 12A thing which drops or hangs down.
- 13A thing which drops or hangs down.
- 14A thing which drops or hangs down.
- 15A thing which drops or hangs down.
- 16A thing which drops or hangs down.
- 17A thing which drops or hangs down.
- 18A thing which drops or hangs down.
- 19An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).
- 20An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).
- 21An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).
- 22An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).
- 23An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).
- 24An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).
- 25An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).
- 26An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).
- 27An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).
- 28An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).
- 29An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).
- 30An act or instance of dropping (in all senses).
- 31A decline in degree, quality, quantity, or rate.
- 32A decline in degree, quality, quantity, or rate.
- 33A decline in degree, quality, quantity, or rate.
- 34The distance through which something drops, or falls below a certain level.
- 35The distance through which something drops, or falls below a certain level.
- 36The distance through which something drops, or falls below a certain level.
- 37The distance through which something drops, or falls below a certain level.
- 38The distance through which something drops, or falls below a certain level.
- 39A place where items or supplies may be left for others to collect, whether openly (as with a mail drop), or secretly or illegally (as in crime or espionage); a drop-off point.
- 40Only used in get the drop on, have the drop on: an advantage.
- 41A point in a song, usually electronic music such as dubstep, house, trance, or trap, where there is a very noticeable and pleasing change in bass, tempo, and/or overall tone; a climax, a highlight.
- 42Licorice in confectionery form.
- 43An automobile with a drop-top roof, a convertible.
- 44A place (specified by an ordinal) in the batting order after the openers.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *dropōn Old English dropian Middle English droppen Proto-Indo-European *dʰrbʰ-néh₂- Proto-Indo-European *dʰrebʰ- Proto-Germanic *dreupaną Proto-Germanic *druppōną Proto-Germanic *drupô Proto-West Germanic *dropō Old English dropa ▲ Middle English droppen Middle English drope ▲ Middle English droppen Middle English droppe English drop From Late Middle English droppe, Middle English drope (“small quantity of liquid; small or least amount of something; pendant jewel; dripping of a liquid; a shower; nasal flow, catarrh; speck, spot; blemish; disease causing spots on the skin”) [and other forms], from Old English dropa (“a drop”), from Proto-West Germanic *dropō (“drop (of liquid)”), from Proto-Germanic *drupô (“drop (of liquid)”),, from *dreupaną (“to drip, droop”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrebʰ- (“to drip, drop”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Droupe, Druppe (“drop”), Dutch drop, drup (“droplet”), German Tropfen (“drop”), German Low German Drüpp (“drop”), Luxembourgish Drëps (“drop”), Vilamovian tropa, troppa (“drop”), Yiddish טראָפּן (tropn, “drop”), Danish dråbe (“drop”), Faroese and Icelandic dropi (“drop”), Norwegian Bokmål dråpe (“drop”), Norwegian Nynorsk drope, dråpå (“drop”), Swedish droppe (“drop”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddrop,dorp,dropp,drpo,drrop,rdop
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for drop
Misspelling Variants of "drop"
Frequency rank: #1,103 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter D in our English index: