feel
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "feel", 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 "feel" 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 "feel" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
feel is aEnglishverb. It means: To use or experience the sense of touch. Pronounced /fiːl/. It ranks #201 in English word frequency. Often confused with FL and few.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | feel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /fiːl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #201 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for feel is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fiːl/. Corpus data places it at rank #201 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 12 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 feel, with forms such as "efel", "feell", and "fel". 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, "FL", "few", "foe", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English felen, from Old English fēlan, from Proto-West Germanic *fōlijan. 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 feel, spelled F-E-E-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To use or experience the sense of touch.
- 2To use or experience the sense of touch.
- 3To use or experience the sense of touch.
- 4To use or experience the sense of touch.
- 5To sense or think emotionally or judgmentally.
- 6To sense or think emotionally or judgmentally.
- 7To sense or think emotionally or judgmentally.
- 8To sense or think emotionally or judgmentally.
- 9To be or become aware of.
- 10To experience the consequences of.
- 11To seem (through touch or otherwise).
- 12To understand.
Etymology
From Middle English felen, from Old English fēlan, from Proto-West Germanic *fōlijan.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: efel,feell,fel,fele,ffeel
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for feel
Misspelling Variants of "feel"
Frequency rank: #201 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter F in our English index: