empty
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 "empty", 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 "empty" 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 "empty" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
empty is anEnglishadj. It means: Devoid of content; containing nothing or nobody; vacant. Pronounced /ˈɛm(p).ti/. It ranks #2,533 in English word frequency. Often confused with EMT and enmity.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | empty |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ˈɛm(p).ti/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,533 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for empty is 5 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɛm(p).ti/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,533 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for empty, with forms such as "emmpty", "emppty", and "emptty". 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 8 confusable-pair relationships, "EMT", "enmity", "Emmy", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English emty, amty, from Old English ǣmtiġ, ǣmettiġ (“vacant, empty, free, idle, unmarried”, literally “without must or obligation, leisurely”), from Proto-Germanic *uz- (“out”) + Proto-Germanic *mōtijô, *mōtô (“must, obligation, need”), *mōtiþô… 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 empty, spelled E-M-P-T-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Devoid of content; containing nothing or nobody; vacant.
- 2Containing no elements (as of a string, array, or set), opposed to being null (having no valid value).
- 3Free; clear; devoid; often with of.
- 4Having nothing to carry, emptyhanded; unburdened.
- 5Destitute of effect, sincerity, or sense; said of language.
- 6Unable to satisfy; hollow; vain.
- 7Destitute of reality, or real existence; unsubstantial.
- 8Destitute of, or lacking, sense, knowledge, or courtesy.
- 9Not pregnant; not producing offspring when expected to do so during the breeding season.
- 10Producing nothing; unfruitful.
- 11Hungry.
- 12Lacking between the onset of tasting and the finish.
Etymology
From Middle English emty, amty, from Old English ǣmtiġ, ǣmettiġ (“vacant, empty, free, idle, unmarried”, literally “without must or obligation, leisurely”), from Proto-Germanic *uz- (“out”) + Proto-Germanic *mōtijô, *mōtô (“must, obligation, need”), *mōtiþô (“ability, accommodation”), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“measure; to acquire, possess, be in command”). Related to Old English ġeǣmtigian (“to empty”), ǣmetta (“leisure”), mōtan (“can, to be allowed”). More at mote, meet. The interconsonantal excrescent p is a euphonic insertion dating from Middle English.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emmpty,emppty,emptty,emptyy,empyt,emtpy,epmty,mepty
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for empty
Misspelling Variants of "empty"
Frequency rank: #2,533 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter E in our English index: