fetch
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "fetch", 5-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 "fetch" 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 "fetch" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
fetch is aEnglishverb. It means: To retrieve; to bear towards; to go and get. Pronounced /fɛt͡ʃ/. Often confused with FTC and fete.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fetch |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /fɛt͡ʃ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #12,046 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 13 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fetch is 5 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɛt͡ʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,046 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for fetch, with forms such as "eftch", "fecth", and "fetcch". 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 13 confusable-pair relationships, "FTC", "fete", "fetus", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The verb is derived from Middle English fecchen (“to get and bring back, fetch; to come for, get and take away; to steal; to carry away to kill; to search for; to obtain, procure”) [and other forms], from Old English feċċan, fæċċan, feccean (“to fetch, brin… 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 fetch, spelled F-E-T-C-H, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To retrieve; to bear towards; to go and get.
- 2To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for.
- 3To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing.
- 4To bring oneself; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward.
- 5To take (a breath); to heave (a sigh).
- 6To cause to come; to bring to a particular state.
- 7To recall from a swoon; to revive; sometimes with to.
- 8To reduce; to throw.
- 9To accomplish; to achieve; to perform, with certain objects or actions.
- 10To make (a pump) draw water by pouring water into the top and working the handle.
Etymology
The verb is derived from Middle English fecchen (“to get and bring back, fetch; to come for, get and take away; to steal; to carry away to kill; to search for; to obtain, procure”) [and other forms], from Old English feċċan, fæċċan, feccean (“to fetch, bring; to draw; to gain, take; to seek”), a variant of fetian, fatian (“to bring near, fetch; to acquire, obtain; to bring on, induce; to fetch a wife, marry”) and possibly related to Old English facian, fācian (“to acquire, obtain; to try to obtain; to get; to get to, reach”), both from Proto-Germanic *fatōną, *fatjaną (“to hold, seize; to fetch”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to step, walk; to fall, stumble”). The English word is cognate with Dutch vatten (“to apprehend, catch; to grasp; to understand”), German fassen (“to catch, grasp; to capture, seize”), English fet (“(obsolete) to fetch”), Faroese fata (“to grasp, understand”), Danish fatte (“to grasp, understand”), Swedish fatta (“to grasp, understand”), Icelandic feta (“to go, step”), West Frisian fetsje (“to grasp”). The noun is derived from the verb.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eftch,fecth,fetcch,fetchh,fethc,fettch,ffetch,ftech
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for fetch
Misspelling Variants of "fetch"
Frequency rank: #12,046 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter F in our English index: