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PlainSpell

et

/ɛt/verb

et is spelled E-T: 2 letters and one syllable. It appears 46 times per million words in written English, the 2,204th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, et means “Pronunciation spelling of ate, the simple past and past participle of eat” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in et?

Letters2: E-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing46 times per million words; the 2,204th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is et?

Et appears 46 times per million words in written English, the 2,204th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce et?

  • /ɛt/

Et has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Persent101-et.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What does et mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    informalPronunciation spelling of ate, the simple past and past participle of eat.

    So we got to talking together while he et his breakfast.

noun

as ET
  1. 1

    Initialism of Eastern Time (-5 hours to GMT).

  2. 2

    Abbreviation of extraterrestrial.

  3. 3

    Initialism of escape tone.

  4. 4

    Initialism of electron tunneling.

  5. 5

    Initialism of essential tremor.

  6. 6

    Abbreviation of endotracheal or endotracheal tube.

  7. 7

    Initialism of electronic ticket.

  8. 8

    Initialism of end transaction or end of transaction (with "transaction" meaning an amendment in the reservation system in this sense).

symbol

as Et
  1. 1

    Abbreviation of ethyl (-C₂H₅).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Et in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense Eastern Time:

LanguageWords
FrenchHE
SpanishET

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does et come from?

From Middle English et, from Old English ǣt, from Proto-West Germanic *āt, from Proto-Germanic *ēt. Doublet of ate.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after et