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farmer

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

Letters

6 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "farmer", 6-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 "farmer" 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 "farmer" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

farmer is aEnglishnoun. It means: Someone or something that farms, as: Pronounced /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/. It ranks #5,596 in English word frequency. Often confused with Farr and farms.

Key facts for farmer
PropertyValue
Headwordfarmer
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/
Letters6
Frequency rank#5,596
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for farmer is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,596 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for farmer, with forms such as "afrmer", "famrer", and "faremr". 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, "Farr", "farms", "freer", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English fermour (“a steward, bailliff, collector of taxes”), from Old French fermier (“a farmer, a lessee, husbandman, bailliff”), from Medieval Latin firmarius (“one to whom land is rented, a collector of taxes, deputy”), from firma; equivalent… 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 farmer, spelled F-A-R-M-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Someone or something that farms, as:
  2. 2
    Someone or something that farms, as:
  3. 3
    One who takes taxes, customs, excise, or other duties, to collect for a certain rate per cent.
  4. 4
    The lord of the field, or one who farms the lot and cope of the crown.
  5. 5
    A regular person; someone who did not receive a prestigious scholarship.
  6. 6
    A baby farmer (operator of a rural orphanage).

Etymology

From Middle English fermour (“a steward, bailliff, collector of taxes”), from Old French fermier (“a farmer, a lessee, husbandman, bailliff”), from Medieval Latin firmarius (“one to whom land is rented, a collector of taxes, deputy”), from firma; equivalent to farm + -er. Compare Old English feormere (“a purveyor of a guild, a supplier of food, a grocer, farmer”). More at farm.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: afrmer,famrer,faremr,farmerr,farmmer,farmre,farrmer,ffarmer,framer

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for farmer

Misspelling Variants of "farmer"

afrmer6famrer6faremr6farmerr7farmmer7farmre6farrmer7ffarmer7
Misspelling Variants of "farmer"

Frequency rank: #5,596 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "farmer"?
"farmer" is spelled F-A-R-M-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/.
What does "farmer" mean?
As a noun, "farmer" means: Someone or something that farms, as:
What words are commonly confused with "farmer"?
"farmer" is commonly confused with "Farr", "farms", "freer". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "farmer"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "farmer" is /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/. 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 "farmer"?
From Middle English fermour (“a steward, bailliff, collector of taxes”), from Old French fermier (“a farmer, a lessee, husbandman, bailliff”), from Medieval Latin firmarius (“one to whom land is rented, a collector of taxes, deputy”), from firma; ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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 F 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.