enter
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "enter", 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 "enter" 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 "enter" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
enter is aEnglishverb. It means: To go or come into an enclosed or partially enclosed space. Pronounced /ˈɛntə(ɹ)/. It ranks #1,632 in English word frequency. Often confused with ever and entry.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | enter |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈɛntə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,632 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for enter is 5 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɛntə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,632 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 14 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 enter, with forms such as "enetr", "ennter", and "enterr". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ever", "entry", "ether", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English entren, from Old French entrer, from Latin intrō (“enter”, verb), from intrā (“inside”). Has been spelled as "enter" for several centuries even in the United Kingdom, although British English and the English of many Commonwealth Countrie… 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 enter, spelled E-N-T-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To go or come into an enclosed or partially enclosed space.
- 2To cause to go (into), or to be received (into); to put in; to insert; to cause to be admitted.
- 3To go or come into (a state or profession).
- 4To type (something) into a computer; to input.
- 5To record (something) in an account, ledger, etc.
- 6To become a party to an agreement, treaty, etc.
- 7To become effective; to come into effect.
- 8To go into or upon, as lands, and take actual possession of them.
- 9To place in regular form before the court, usually in writing; to put upon record in proper from and order
- 10To make report of (a vessel or its cargo) at the custom house; to submit a statement of (imported goods), with the original invoices, to the proper customs officer for estimating the duties. See entry.
- 11To file, or register with the land office, the required particulars concerning (a quantity of public land) in order to entitle a person to a right of preemption.
- 12To deposit for copyright the title or description of (a book, picture, map, etc.).
- 13To initiate; to introduce favourably.
- 14To begin (a regular activity or job); to undertake; to take up.
Etymology
From Middle English entren, from Old French entrer, from Latin intrō (“enter”, verb), from intrā (“inside”). Has been spelled as "enter" for several centuries even in the United Kingdom, although British English and the English of many Commonwealth Countries (e.g. Australia, Canada) retain the "re" ending for many words such as centre, fibre, spectre, theatre, calibre, sombre, lustre, and litre.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: enetr,ennter,enterr,entter,etner,neter
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for enter
Misspelling Variants of "enter"
Frequency rank: #1,632 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter E in our English index: