freshman
fresh·man/ˈfɹɛʃ.mən/noun
freshman is spelled F-R-E-S-H-M-A-N: 8 letters and 2 syllables (fresh·man). It appears 9.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,338th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, freshman means “a person (of either sex) entering the first year of an institution, especially a high school (ninth grade for US, grade 9 for Canada, grade 7 for…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of freshman is freshmen.
How many letters and syllables are in freshman?
| Letters | 8: F-R-E-S-H-M-A-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: fresh·man |
| In writing | 9.5 times per million words; the 7,338th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is freshman?
Freshman appears 9.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,338th 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 freshman?
- /ˈfɹɛʃ.mən/
- [ˈfɹʷɛʃ.mən] ~ [ˈfɹʷɛʃ.mn̩]
Freshman has 2 syllables, split fresh·man in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-freshman.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of freshman
- freshmen plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does freshman mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
CanadaUSa person (of either sex) entering the first year of an institution, especially a high school (ninth grade for US, grade 9 for Canada, grade 7 for Philippines), a university, or legislative body
At the time I was a wide-eyed freshman, but I was soon to grow jaded and cynical.
- 2
obsoletea novice; one in the rudiments of knowledge
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Freshman in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | bizut, bizuth, bleu, bleue |
| German | Erstsemester, Ersti , Neuling |
| Portuguese | calouro, caloiro, bicho |
| Spanish | novato, mechón, cachimbo |
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 freshman come from?
From fresh + man.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).