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frog

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

Letters

4 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "frog", 4-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 "frog" 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 "frog" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

frog is aEnglishnoun. It means: Any of a class of small tailless amphibians of the order Anura that typically hop. Pronounced /fɹɒɡ/. It ranks #8,426 in English word frequency. Often confused with fry and from.

Key facts for frog
PropertyValue
Headwordfrog
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/fɹɒɡ/
Letters4
Frequency rank#8,426
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for frog is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɹɒɡ/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,426 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for frog, with forms such as "ffrog", "forg", and "frgo". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fry", "from", "fung", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English frogge, from Old English frocga, from Proto-West Germanic *froggō (“frog”). Cognate with Old Norse frauki, and Old English frox, frosc, whence Modern English frosh and frosk (“frog”). Possibly related to Saterland Frisian Poage (“frog”),… 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 frog, spelled F-R-O-G, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Any of a class of small tailless amphibians of the order Anura that typically hop.
  2. 2
    The part of a violin bow (or that of other similar string instruments such as the viola, cello and contrabass) located at the end held by the player, to which the horsehair is attached.
  3. 3
    Synonym of road; clipping of less common frog and toad.
  4. 4
    The depression in the upper face of a pressed or handmade clay brick.
  5. 5
    An organ on the bottom of a horse’s hoof that assists in the circulation of blood.
  6. 6
    The part of a railway switch or turnout where the running rails cross (from the resemblance to the frog in a horse’s hoof).
  7. 7
    The part of a railroad overhead wire used to redirect a trolley pole from one wire to another at switches.
  8. 8
    A type of fishing lure that resembles a frog.
  9. 9
    Defector: politician who switches to a different political party.

Etymology

From Middle English frogge, from Old English frocga, from Proto-West Germanic *froggō (“frog”). Cognate with Old Norse frauki, and Old English frox, frosc, whence Modern English frosh and frosk (“frog”). Possibly related to Saterland Frisian Poage (“frog”), German Low German Pogg, Pogge (“frog”). Sense 5 (organ on a horse's hoof) is a calque of Ancient Greek βάτραχος (bátrakhos).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ffrog,forg,frgo,frogg,frrog,rfog

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for frog

Misspelling Variants of "frog"

ffrog5forg4frgo4frogg5frrog5rfog4
Misspelling Variants of "frog"

Frequency rank: #8,426 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "frog"?
"frog" is spelled F-R-O-G. The IPA pronunciation is /fɹɒɡ/.
What does "frog" mean?
As a noun, "frog" means: Any of a class of small tailless amphibians of the order Anura that typically hop.
What words are commonly confused with "frog"?
"frog" is commonly confused with "fry", "from", "fung". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "frog"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "frog" is /fɹɒɡ/. 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 "frog"?
From Middle English frogge, from Old English frocga, from Proto-West Germanic *froggō (“frog”). Cognate with Old Norse frauki, and Old English frox, frosc, whence Modern English frosh and frosk (“frog”). Possibly related to Saterland Frisian Poage... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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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.