eclipse
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "eclipse", 7-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 "eclipse" 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 "eclipse" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
eclipse is aEnglishnoun. It means: An alignment of astronomical objects whereby one object comes between the observer (or notional observer) and another object, thus obscuring the latter. Pronounced /ɪˈklɪps/. It ranks #9,462 in English word frequency. Often confused with Elise and ellipse.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | eclipse |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɪˈklɪps/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #9,462 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for eclipse is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪˈklɪps/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,462 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 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for eclipse, with forms such as "celipse", "ecclipse", and "ecilpse". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "Elise", "ellipse", "eclipsed", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French eclipse, from Latin eclīpsis, from Ancient Greek ἔκλειψις (ékleipsis, “eclipse”), from ἐκλείπω (ekleípō, “I abandon, go missing, vanish”), from ἐκ (ek, “out”) and λείπω (leípō, “I leave behind”). Doublet of eclipsis. 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 eclipse, spelled E-C-L-I-P-S-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1An alignment of astronomical objects whereby one object comes between the observer (or notional observer) and another object, thus obscuring the latter.
- 2Especially, an alignment whereby a planetary object (for example, the Moon) comes between the Sun and another planetary object (for example, the Earth), resulting in a shadow being cast by the middle planetary object onto the other planetary object.
- 3A seasonal state of plumage in some birds, notably ducks, adopted temporarily after the breeding season and characterised by a dull and scruffy appearance.
- 4Obscurity, decline, downfall.
Etymology
From Old French eclipse, from Latin eclīpsis, from Ancient Greek ἔκλειψις (ékleipsis, “eclipse”), from ἐκλείπω (ekleípō, “I abandon, go missing, vanish”), from ἐκ (ek, “out”) and λείπω (leípō, “I leave behind”). Doublet of eclipsis.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: celipse,ecclipse,ecilpse,eclipes,eclippse,eclipsse,eclispe,ecllipse,eclpise,elcipse
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for eclipse
Misspelling Variants of "eclipse"
Frequency rank: #9,462 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter E in our English index: