fellow
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "fellow", 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 "fellow" 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 "fellow" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
fellow is aEnglishnoun. It means: A companion; a comrade. Pronounced /ˈfɛləʊ/. It ranks #1,791 in English word frequency. Often confused with flow and felon.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fellow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɛləʊ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,791 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 12 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fellow is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɛləʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,791 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 31 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for fellow, with forms such as "efllow", "felloww", and "fellwo". 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 12 confusable-pair relationships, "flow", "felon", "Fells", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English felowe, Early Middle English felage (“companion, good friend”) from Old English fēolaga, from Old Norse félagi, derived from félag (“joint venture; partnership”, literally “a laying together of property”), from fé (“livestock, property; … 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 fellow, spelled F-E-L-L-O-W, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A companion; a comrade.
- 2An animal which is a member of a breed or species, or a flock, herd, etc.
- 3An object which is associated with another object; especially, as part of a set.
- 4A person or thing comparable in characteristics with another person or thing; especially, as belonging to the same class or group.
- 5A person or thing comparable in characteristics with another person or thing; especially, as belonging to the same class or group.
- 6A person or thing comparable in characteristics with another person or thing; especially, as belonging to the same class or group.
- 7A person or thing comparable in characteristics with another person or thing; especially, as belonging to the same class or group.
- 8A person or thing comparable in characteristics with another person or thing; especially, as belonging to the same class or group.
- 9Often in the form Fellow: academic senses.
- 10Often in the form Fellow: academic senses.
- 11Often in the form Fellow: academic senses.
- 12Often in the form Fellow: academic senses.
- 13Often in the form Fellow: academic senses.
- 14Often in the form Fellow: academic senses.
- 15Often in the form Fellow: academic senses.
- 16Often in the form Fellow: academic senses.
- 17A male person; a bloke, a chap, a guy, a man; also, preceded by a modifying word, sometimes with a sense of mild reproach: used as a familiar term of address to a man.
- 18Usually qualified by an adjective or used in the plural: an individual or person regardless of gender.
- 19An animal or object.
- 20One of a pair of things suited to each other or used together; a counterpart, a mate.
- 21One of a pair of things suited to each other or used together; a counterpart, a mate.
- 22Alternative form of fella (“used as a general intensifier”)
- 23A colleague or partner.
- 24A colleague or partner.
- 25A close companion or friend; also, a companion or friend whom one eats or drinks with.
- 26Followed by of: one who participates in an activity; a participant.
- 27A man without good breeding or of lower social status; a common or ignoble man; also, used as a polite term of address to such a person.
- 28A person's servant or slave.
- 29A worthless person; a churl, a knave; also, used as a term of address to a person regarded as such.
- 30Synonym of schoolmate (“a student at the same school”).
- 31A black man.
Etymology
From Middle English felowe, Early Middle English felage (“companion, good friend”) from Old English fēolaga, from Old Norse félagi, derived from félag (“joint venture; partnership”, literally “a laying together of property”), from fé (“livestock, property; money”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- (“livestock; wealth”)) + lag (“something laid down; right position; arrangement; companionship, fellowship; partnership”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie down”)). Cognates * Old Norse filaga, felaka (“partner”, accusative singular), from which the other terms are derived: * Danish fælle (“companion”) * Faroese felagi (“member; partner”) * Icelandic félagi (“companion, comrade, fellow; member; partner”) * Norwegian felle (“companion”) * Old Swedish fälaghi (modern Swedish felaga, felaha (“partner”, accusative singular)) * Scots falow, fallow, follow (“associate, companion, comrade”)
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: efllow,felloww,fellwo,felolw,felow,ffellow,flelow
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for fellow
Misspelling Variants of "fellow"
Frequency rank: #1,791 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "fellow"?
What does "fellow" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "fellow"?
How do you pronounce "fellow"?
What is the origin of the word "fellow"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter F in our English index: