fetish
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 "fetish", 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 "fetish" 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 "fetish" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
fetish is aEnglishnoun. It means: Something which is believed to possess, contain, or cause spiritual or magical powers; an amulet or a talisman. Pronounced /ˈfɛt.ɪʃ/. Often confused with fish and fetus.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fetish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɛt.ɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #13,149 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fetish is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɛt.ɪʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,149 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 5 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 fetish, with forms such as "eftish", "feitsh", and "fetihs". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "fish", "fetus", "finish", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁k-yé-ti Proto-Italic *θakjō Proto-Italic *fakjō Latin faciō Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Italic *-tos Latin -tus Latin factus Latin -īcius Latin factīcius Portuguese feitiçobor. Fren… 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 fetish, spelled F-E-T-I-S-H, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Something which is believed to possess, contain, or cause spiritual or magical powers; an amulet or a talisman.
- 2A figure representing the spirit of a deity, human, or animal; an idol or voodoo doll.
- 3Sexual fixation to or arousal at something abnormally sexual or nonsexual, such as an object or a nonsexual part of the body.
- 4An irrational or abnormal preoccupation or fixation on some object or activity; an obsession.
- 5A recurrent theme of a specific thing.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁k-yé-ti Proto-Italic *θakjō Proto-Italic *fakjō Latin faciō Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Italic *-tos Latin -tus Latin factus Latin -īcius Latin factīcius Portuguese feitiçobor. French fétichebor. English fetish Borrowed from French fétiche, from Portuguese feitiço, from Latin factīcius (“artificial”). Doublet of factitious.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eftish,feitsh,fetihs,fetishh,fetissh,fetsih,fettish,ffetish,fteish
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for fetish
Misspelling Variants of "fetish"
Frequency rank: #13,149 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "fetish"?
What does "fetish" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "fetish"?
How do you pronounce "fetish"?
What is the origin of the word "fetish"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter F in our English index: