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freeze

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

6 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "freeze", 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 "freeze" 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 "freeze" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

freeze is aEnglishverb. It means: Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature. Pronounced /ˈfɹiːz/. It ranks #5,965 in English word frequency. Often confused with froze and frenzy.

Key facts for freeze
PropertyValue
Headwordfreeze
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/ˈfɹiːz/
Letters6
Frequency rank#5,965
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs12
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of freeze in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for freeze is 6 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɹiːz/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,965 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 13 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 freeze, with forms such as "fereze", "ffreeze", and "freeez". 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 12 confusable-pair relationships, "froze", "frenzy", "frieze", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: 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”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian friis, friise, frü… 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 freeze, spelled F-R-E-E-Z-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.
  2. 2
    To lower something's temperature to the point that it freezes or becomes hard.
  3. 3
    To drop to a temperature below zero degrees celsius, where water turns to ice.
  4. 4
    To be affected by extreme cold.
  5. 5
    Of a machine or system, to come to a sudden halt, to stop working (functioning).
  6. 6
    Of a person or other animal, to stop (become motionless) or be stopped due to attentiveness, fear, surprise, etc.
  7. 7
    To cause someone to become motionless.
  8. 8
    To lose or cause to lose warmth of feeling; to shut out; to ostracize.
  9. 9
    To cause loss of animation or life in, from lack of heat; to give the sensation of cold to; to chill.
  10. 10
    To prevent the movement or liquidation of a person's financial assets
  11. 11
    Of prices, spending etc., to keep at the same level, without any increase.
  12. 12
    To prevent from showing any visible change.
  13. 13
    To trap (the puck) so that it cannot be played.

Etymology

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”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian friis, friise, früüs (“to freeze”), Saterland Frisian fjoose, frjoze (“to freeze”), West Frisian frieze (“to freeze”), Central Franconian freese (“to freeze”), Cimbrian briizan, vriizan (“to be cold”), Dutch vriezen (“to freeze”), Low German freren, fresen (“to freeze”), Luxembourgish fréieren (“to freeze”), German frieren (“to freeze”), Yiddish פֿרירן (frirn, “freeze”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål fryse (“to freeze”), Icelandic frjósa (“to freeze”), Norwegian Nynorsk frysa, fryse (“to freeze”), Swedish frysa (“to freeze”); also Cornish rew (“frost, ice”), Irish reo (“frost”), reoigh (“to freeze”), Manx rio (“frost, ice”), Scottish Gaelic reòdh, reòth (“freeze”), Welsh rhew (“frost, ice”), Latin pruīna (“hoarfrost, rime”), Albanian prush (“embers”), Lithuanian prausti (“to give showers of rain”), Czech prskat (“to splutter, sputter”), Macedonian прска (prska, “to spray, sprinkle”), Polish pryskać, prysnąć (“to spray, sprinkle”), Russian пры́скать (prýskatʹ), пры́снуть (prýsnutʹ, “to spray, sprinkle”), Serbo-Croatian прскати, prskati (“to spray, sprinkle”), Sanskrit प्रुष्णोति (pruṣṇoti, “to moisten, shower, sprinkle, wet”), प्रुष्वा (pruṣvā, “hoarfrost, ice, rime”), Saraiki پسݨ (pussaṇ, “to become wet”).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: fereze,ffreeze,freeez,freezze,freze,frezee,frreeze,rfeeze

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for freeze

Misspelling Variants of "freeze"

fereze6ffreeze7freeez6freezze7freze5frezee6frreeze7rfeeze6
Misspelling Variants of "freeze"

Frequency rank: #5,965 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "freeze"?
"freeze" is spelled F-R-E-E-Z-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈfɹiːz/.
What does "freeze" mean?
As a verb, "freeze" means: Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.
What words are commonly confused with "freeze"?
"freeze" is commonly confused with "froze", "frenzy", "frieze". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "freeze"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "freeze" is /ˈfɹiːz/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "freeze"?
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”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian friis, f... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter F in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.