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freeze

/ˈfɹiːz/verb, noun

freeze is spelled F-R-E-E-Z-E: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,957th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, freeze means “Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in freeze?

Letters6: F-R-E-E-Z-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing13 times per million words; the 5,957th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like

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).

How common is freeze?

Freeze appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,957th 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 freeze?

  • /ˈfɹiːz/

Freeze 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: En-us-freeze.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with freeze

Sounds like: frieze (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: frieze.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of freeze

  • freezes present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • freezing participle, present
  • froze past, participle
  • frozen participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does freeze mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.

    The lake froze solid.

  2. 2

    To lower something's temperature to the point that it freezes or becomes hard.

    Don't freeze meat twice.

  3. 3

    To drop to a temperature below zero degrees celsius, where water turns to ice.

    It didn't freeze this winter, but last winter was very harsh.

  4. 4

    informalTo be affected by extreme cold.

    It's freezing in here!

  5. 5

    Of a machine or system, to come to a sudden halt, to stop working (functioning).

    Since the last update, the program freezes after a few minutes of use.

  6. 6

    Of a person or other animal, to stop (become motionless) or be stopped due to attentiveness, fear, surprise, etc.

    Despite all of the rehearsals, I froze as soon as I got on stage.

  7. 7

    To cause someone to become motionless.

  8. 8

    To lose or cause to lose warmth of feeling; to shut out; to ostracize.

    Over time, he froze towards her, and ceased to react to her friendly advances.

noun

  1. 1

    A period of intensely cold weather.

  2. 2

    A halt of a regular operation.

  3. 3

    The state when either a single computer program, or the whole system ceases to respond to inputs.

  4. 4

    A precise draw weight shot where a delivered stone comes to a stand-still against a stationary stone, making it nearly impossible to knock out.

  5. 5

    A block on pay rises or on the hiring of new employees etc.

    a hiring freeze;  a pay freeze

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Freeze in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchgeler, glacer (to become solid due to low temperature), congeler (to lower something's temperature to freezing…), figer (of machines and software: to come to a sudden…), grands froids (period of cold), gel (halt of regular operation)
Germangefrieren (to become solid due to low temperature), einfrieren (to lower something's temperature to freezing…), stoppen (of machines and software: to come to a sudden…), Frost, Frostwetter (period of cold), frieren (of temperature, to drop below zero)
Portuguesegelar, congelar (to become solid due to low temperature), estar congelando, ficar congelando (to be affected by cold), bloquear ((computing) state when the system ceases to…)
Spanishhelarse, congelarse, frisarse (to become solid due to low temperature), helar, congelar, frisar (to lower something's temperature to freezing…)

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 freeze come from?

From Middle English fresen, from Old English frēosan (“to freeze”), from Proto-West Germanic *freusan, from Proto-Germanic *freusaną (“to freeze”), from Proto-Indo-European *prews- (“to freeze; frost”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after freeze