elbow
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "elbow", 5-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 "elbow" 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 "elbow" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
elbow is aEnglishnoun. It means: The joint between the upper arm and the forearm. Pronounced /ˈɛlbəʊ̯/. It ranks #9,037 in English word frequency. Often confused with Elo and elon.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | elbow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɛlbəʊ̯/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #9,037 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for elbow is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɛlbəʊ̯/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,037 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 6 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 elbow, with forms such as "elbbow", "elboww", and "elbwo". 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 7 confusable-pair relationships, "Elo", "elon", "Elmo", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English elbowe (“elbow”), from Old English elboga, elnboga (“elbow”), from Proto-Germanic *alinabugô (“elbow”), equivalent to ell + bow. Cognate with Scots elbuck (“elbow”), Saterland Frisian Älbooge (“elbow”), Dutch elleboog (“elbow”), Low Germ… 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 elbow, spelled E-L-B-O-W, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The joint between the upper arm and the forearm.
- 2Any turn or bend like that of the elbow, in a wall, building, coastline, etc.; an angular or jointed part of any structure, such as the raised arm of a chair or sofa, or a short pipe fitting, turning at an angle or bent.
- 3A detective.
- 4Part of a basketball court located at the intersection of the free-throw line and the free-throw lane.
- 5A hit, strike, or blow with the elbow.
- 6Two nearby crossings of a rope.
Etymology
From Middle English elbowe (“elbow”), from Old English elboga, elnboga (“elbow”), from Proto-Germanic *alinabugô (“elbow”), equivalent to ell + bow. Cognate with Scots elbuck (“elbow”), Saterland Frisian Älbooge (“elbow”), Dutch elleboog (“elbow”), Low German Ellebage (“elbow”), German Ellbogen, Ellenbogen (“elbow”), Danish and Norwegian albue (“elbow”), Faroese albogi, Icelandic olbogi, olnbogi (“elbow”), Swedish armbåge (“elbow”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: elbbow,elboww,elbwo,ellbow,elobw,lebow
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for elbow
Misspelling Variants of "elbow"
Frequency rank: #9,037 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter E in our English index: