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entreat

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

Letters

7 characters

Language

English

word origin

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "entreat", 7-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 "entreat" 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 "entreat" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

entreat is aEnglishverb. It means: Senses relating to asking or pleading. Pronounced /ɪnˈtɹiːt/.

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Key facts for entreat
PropertyValue
Headwordentreat
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/ɪnˈtɹiːt/
Letters7
Frequency rank#65,090
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for entreat is 7 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪnˈtɹiːt/. Corpus data places it at rank #65,090 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for entreat in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: The verb is derived from Late Middle English entreten (“to deal with (someone) in a specified way; to concern oneself with (something); to deal with or give an account of (a topic); to engage in negotiation; to intercede for (someone); to plead with (someon… 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 entreat, spelled E-N-T-R-E-A-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Senses relating to asking or pleading.
  2. 2
    Senses relating to asking or pleading.
  3. 3
    Senses relating to asking or pleading.
  4. 4
    Senses relating to asking or pleading.
  5. 5
    Senses relating to asking or pleading.
  6. 6
    Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.
  7. 7
    Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.
  8. 8
    Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.
  9. 9
    Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.
  10. 10
    Senses relating to dealing with or negotiating.

Etymology

The verb is derived from Late Middle English entreten (“to deal with (someone) in a specified way; to concern oneself with (something); to deal with or give an account of (a topic); to engage in negotiation; to intercede for (someone); to plead with (someone)”), from Anglo-Norman entraiter, entretier (“to concern oneself with (something); to deal with (someone) in a specified manner; to have a conversation with (someone); to negotiate (with someone, or about something)”), Middle French entraiter, entraictier, and Old French entraictier (“to have a conversation with (someone); to concern oneself with (something)”), from en- (prefix meaning ‘in, into’) + traiter (“to be concerned with (something); to treat (someone) in a specified way”) (from Latin tractāre, the present active infinitive of tractō (“to handle, manage; to drag, haul”), from trahō (“to drag, pull; etc.”) (see that entry for the further etymology) + -tō (frequentative suffix)). The noun is derived from Late Middle English entrete (“agreement; negotiation; treatment of a subject in discourse”), from the verb.

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #65,090 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "entreat"?
"entreat" is spelled E-N-T-R-E-A-T. The IPA pronunciation is /ɪnˈtɹiːt/.
What does "entreat" mean?
As a verb, "entreat" means: Senses relating to asking or pleading.
How do you pronounce "entreat"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "entreat" is /ɪnˈtɹiːt/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "entreat"?
The verb is derived from Late Middle English entreten (“to deal with (someone) in a specified way; to concern oneself with (something); to deal with or give an account of (a topic); to engage in negotiation; to intercede for (someone); to plead wi... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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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:

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