etc
/ˌɛt ˈsɛt(ə)ɹə/phrase
etc is a phrase meaning “Alternative form of etc” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled E-T-C and has 4 syllables, and it appears 107 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does etc mean?
phrase
- 1
Alternative form of etc..
noun
- 1
Acronym of electron transport chain.
- 2
Acronym of Exchange-Traded Commodity.
- 3
Acronym of electronic toll collection, a system to eliminate delays on toll roads by collecting them electronically.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce etc?
- /ˌɛt ˈsɛt(ə)ɹə/
Etc has 4 syllables (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: En-us-etc.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-et_cetera.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of etc
- ec.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is etc?
Etc appears 107 times per million words in written English, the 996th 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).
Etc in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense and so on – see also and so forth:
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.