# escape

> English word · Verb · IPA /ɪˈskeɪp/ · frequency rank #2,292

## Definitions
1. To get free; to free oneself.
2. To avoid (any unpleasant person or thing); to elude, get away from.
3. To avoid capture; to get away with something, avoid punishment.
4. To elude the observation or notice of; to not be seen or remembered by.
5. To cause (a single character, or all such characters in a string) to be interpreted literally, instead of with any special meaning it would usually have in the same context, often by prefixing with another character.
6. To halt a program or command by pressing a key (such as the "Esc" key) or combination of keys.

## Etymology
From Middle English escapen, from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French escaper ( = Old French eschaper, modern French échapper), from Vulgar Latin *excappāre (“to escape a garment, get out of one's clothing”, literally “to free oneself from one's cape”), from Latin ex- (“out”) + Late Latin cappa (“cape, cloak”). Cognate with escapade. Also doublet of scape.

## Easily confused with
- **estate** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/escape-vs-estate)
- **escaped** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/escape-vs-escaped)

## Common misspellings (8)
`ecsape`, `esacpe`, `escaep`, `escappe`, `esccape`, `escpae`, `esscape`, `secape`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/escape