firth
/fɝθ/noun
firth is spelled F-I-R-T-H: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,965th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, firth means “An arm or inlet of the sea; a river estuary” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of firth is firths.
How many letters and syllables are in firth?
| Letters | 5: F-I-R-T-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words; the 22,965th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is firth?
Firth appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,965th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce firth?
- UK /fɜːθ/
- US /fɝθ/
- /fɪɹθ/
Firth has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-firth.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with firth
Also written: frith.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with firth?
8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as firth from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹθ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: frith.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of firth
- firths plural
- frith
- fyrth
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does firth mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An arm or inlet of the sea; a river estuary.
- 2
ScotlandAlternative form of frith (“a forest used for hunting; a (small) wood; wooded country; land covered mainly by brushwood”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Firth in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense arm or inlet of the sea:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | ría |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does firth come from?
Borrowed from Scots firth, furth, from Northern Middle English fyrth, from either or both of Old English ford and Old Norse fjǫrðr (“firth, fjord”), from Proto-Germanic *ferþu, *ferþuz (“inlet, fjord”), from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (“crossing”), from *per- (“to carry forth”) + *-tus (suffix forming action nouns from verb roots). The English word is a doublet of fjord, ford, port, and fjard.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).