fair
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "fair", 4-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 "fair" 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 "fair" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
fair is anEnglishadj. It means: Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality. Pronounced /fɛə/. It ranks #1,104 in English word frequency. Often confused with fi and for.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fair |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /fɛə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,104 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fair is 4 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɛə/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,104 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 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for fair, with forms such as "afir", "fairr", and "fari". 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, "fi", "for", "far", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Cognate with Scots fayr, fare (“fair… 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 fair, spelled F-A-I-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.
- 2Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure; innocent.
- 3Light in color, pale, particularly with regard to skin tone but also referring to blond and red hair.
- 4Just.
- 5Adequate, reasonable, or decent, but not excellent.
- 6Favorable to a ship's course.
- 7Favorable, pleasant.
- 8Favorable, pleasant.
- 9Favorable, pleasant.
- 10Without sudden change of direction or curvature; smooth; flowing; said of the figure of a vessel, and of surfaces, water lines, and other lines.
- 11Between the baselines.
- 12Taken direct from an opponent's foot, without the ball touching the ground or another player.
- 13Not a no ball.
- 14Of a coin or die, having equal chance of landing on any side, unbiased.
Etymology
From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Cognate with Scots fayr, fare (“fair”), Danish feir, faver, fager (“fair, pretty”), Norwegian fager (“fair, pretty”), Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Umbrian pacer (“gracious, merciful, kind”), Slovak pekný (“good-looking, handsome, nice”). See also peace.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: afir,fairr,fari,ffair,fiar
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for fair
Misspelling Variants of "fair"
Frequency rank: #1,104 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "fair"?
What does "fair" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "fair"?
How do you pronounce "fair"?
What is the origin of the word "fair"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter F in our English index: