English Word Reference Free

emphasise

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

9 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

open dictionary

Access

Free

no sign-up needed

Detailed reference entry for the English word "emphasise", 9-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 "emphasise" 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 "emphasise" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

emphasise is aEnglishverb. It means: British standard spelling of emphasize. Often confused with emphasize and emphasized.

Key facts for emphasise
PropertyValue
Headwordemphasise
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters9
Frequency rank#26,410
Misspellings tracked13
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of emphasise in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for emphasise is 9 letters long, classified as averb. Corpus data places it at rank #26,410 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "British standard spelling of emphasize.".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 13 documented wrong-spelling variants for emphasise, with forms such as "emhpasise", "emmphasise", and "empahsise". 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, "emphasize", "emphasized", "emphasis", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is emphasise, spelled E-M-P-H-A-S-I-S-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    British standard spelling of emphasize.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: emhpasise,emmphasise,empahsise,emphaisse,emphasies,emphasisse,emphassie,emphassise,emphhasise,emphsaise,empphasise,epmhasise,mephasise

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for emphasise

Misspelling Variants of "emphasise"

emhpasise9emmphasise10empahsise9emphaisse9emphasies9emphasisse10emphassie9emphassise10
Misspelling Variants of "emphasise"

Frequency rank: #26,410 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "emphasise"?
"emphasise" is spelled E-M-P-H-A-S-I-S-E.
What does "emphasise" mean?
As a verb, "emphasise" means: British standard spelling of emphasize.
What words are commonly confused with "emphasise"?
"emphasise" is commonly confused with "emphasize", "emphasized", "emphasis". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "emphasise" come from?
"emphasise" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter E in our English index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.