eke
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
3 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "eke", 3-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 "eke" 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 "eke" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
eke is aEnglishnoun. It means: An addition. Pronounced /iːk/. Often confused with ex and et.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | eke |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /iːk/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #45,352 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for eke is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /iːk/. Corpus data places it at rank #45,352 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for eke in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ex", "et", "EU", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English eke (“addition, increase, enlargement”), from Old English ēaca, from Proto-Germanic *aukô, from *aukaną (“to increase, add, enlarge”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewg- (“to enlarge, increase”). The English … 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 eke, spelled E-K-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1An addition.
- 2A small stand on which a beehive is placed.
- 3A spacer put between or over or under hive parts to make more space.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English eke (“addition, increase, enlargement”), from Old English ēaca, from Proto-Germanic *aukô, from *aukaną (“to increase, add, enlarge”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewg- (“to enlarge, increase”). The English noun is cognate with Old Frisian āka (“addition, increase; bonus”), Old Norse auki (“growth, increase, proliferation”). The verb is derived partly: * from the noun; and * from Middle English eken (“to increase, add, enlarge”) [and other forms], from three distinct verbs (1) Old English īeċan (“to increase, add, enlarge”) (transitive), (2) ēacan (“to be enlarged or increased”), and (3) ēacian, all from Proto-Germanic *aukaną (“to grow, increase”); see further above. The English verb is cognate with Latin augeō (“to augment, increase; to enlarge, expand, spread; to lengthen; to exaggerate; to enrich; to honour; (figuratively) to exalt, praise”), Old English ēac (“also”), Old Norse auka (“to augment, increase; to add; to exceed, surpass”), Icelandic auka (“to augment, increase to add; to exceed, surpass”), (Danish øge (“to enhance; to increase”), Norwegian Bokmål øke (“to increase”), Norwegian Nynorsk auka (“to increase”), Swedish öka (“to increase”)).
Frequency rank: #45,352 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter E in our English index: