-fold
"fold" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“-fold” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a suffix. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Used to make adjectives meaning times.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fold · -fold · English
-fold · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "-" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | -fold |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Suffix |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “-fold” in English
Rare enough to double-check
-fold is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as asuffix. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for -fold, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English -fold, -fald, -fauld, from Old English -feald (“-fold”), from Proto-West Germanic *-falþ, from Proto-Germanic *-falþaz (“-fold”), from Proto-Indo-European *-poltos (“-fold”), from *pel- (“to fold”). Cognate with Dutch -voud, Swedish -fal… The correct English form is -fold, spelled --F-O-L-D.
Definition
- 1Used to make adjectives meaning times.
- 2Used to make adverbs meaning times.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how -fold appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
There has been a threefold increase in inflation ( = inflation is three times what it was before)
The cancer tissue in two of the ... specimens ... exhibited a dramatic 23-fold increase in the laminin-receptor-mRNA levels.
Etymology
From Middle English -fold, -fald, -fauld, from Old English -feald (“-fold”), from Proto-West Germanic *-falþ, from Proto-Germanic *-falþaz (“-fold”), from Proto-Indo-European *-poltos (“-fold”), from *pel- (“to fold”). Cognate with Dutch -voud, Swedish -faldig (“-fold”), Latin -plus, -plex, Ancient Greek -παλτος (-paltos), -πλος (-plos), -πλόος (-plóos). More at fold.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.