february
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
8 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "february", 8-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 "february" 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 "february" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
February is aEnglishname. It means: The short month following January and preceding March in the Roman, Julian, and Gregorian calendars, used in all three calendars for intercalation or addition of leap days. Pronounced /ˈfɛb.ɹʊ.ə.ɹi/. It ranks #990 in English word frequency.
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Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | February |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Name |
| IPA | /ˈfɛb.ɹʊ.ə.ɹi/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #990 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for February is 8 letters long, classified as aname, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɛb.ɹʊ.ə.ɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #990 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 12 documented wrong-spelling variants for February, with forms such as "efbruary", "fberuary", and "febbruary". 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 is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ-der. Latin februum Latin Februa Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āsios Latin -arius Latin Februāriusder. Middle English Februarie English February From Middle English Februarie, februari, februare, from… 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 February, spelled F-E-B-R-U-A-R-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The short month following January and preceding March in the Roman, Julian, and Gregorian calendars, used in all three calendars for intercalation or addition of leap days.
- 2A female given name transferred from the month name [in turn from English].
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ-der. Latin februum Latin Februa Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āsios Latin -arius Latin Februāriusder. Middle English Februarie English February From Middle English Februarie, februari, februare, from Latin Februārius (“the month of the Februa”), from Februa (“the Purgings, the Purifications”), a Roman holiday two days after its ides (i.e., Feb. 15), + -arius (“-ary: forming adjectives”). Februa from februum (“purging”), from an earlier Sabine [Term?] word, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“smoke, haze”) and thus cognate with thio- (“sulfurous”) and Ancient Greek θεῖον (theîon, “sulfur”) or from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰris, an extension of the root *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”) and thus cognate with fever and febris. A relatinization abandoning Middle English feoverel, from Old French feverier, which itself displaced Old English solmōnaþ (“mud month”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: efbruary,fberuary,febbruary,febraury,febrruary,februarry,februaryy,februayr,februray,feburary,ferbuary,ffebruary
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for February
Misspelling Variants of "February"
Frequency rank: #990 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter F in our English index: