from
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "from", 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 "from" 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 "from" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
from is aEnglishprep. It means: Used to indicate source or provenance. Pronounced /fɹɒm/. It ranks #26 in English word frequency. Often confused with fry and front.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | from |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep |
| IPA | /fɹɒm/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #26 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for from is 4 letters long, classified as aprep, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɹɒm/. Corpus data places it at rank #26 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 4 documented wrong-spelling variants for from, with forms such as "ffrom", "frmo", and "frrom". 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", "front", "frost", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English from (“from”), from Old English from, fram (“forward, from”), from Proto-West Germanic *fram, from Proto-Germanic *fram (“forward, from, away”). Cognate with Old Saxon fram (“from”) and Old High German fram (“from”), Danish frem (“forth,… 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 from, spelled F-R-O-M, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Used to indicate source or provenance.
- 2Originating at (a year, time, etc.)
- 3Used to indicate a starting point or initial reference.
- 4Used to indicate a starting point or initial reference.
- 5Used to indicate a starting point or initial reference.
- 6Used to indicate a starting point or initial reference.
- 7Used to indicate a starting point or initial reference.
- 8Used to indicate a starting point or initial reference.
- 9Indicating removal or separation.
- 10Indicating removal or separation.
- 11Indicating exclusion.
- 12Indicating differentiation.
- 13Produced with or out of (a substance or material).
- 14Used to indicate causation; because of, as a result of.
Etymology
From Middle English from (“from”), from Old English from, fram (“forward, from”), from Proto-West Germanic *fram, from Proto-Germanic *fram (“forward, from, away”). Cognate with Old Saxon fram (“from”) and Old High German fram (“from”), Danish frem (“forth, forward”), Danish fra (“from”), Swedish fram (“forth, forward”), Swedish från (“from”), Norwegian Nynorsk fram (“forward”), Norwegian Nynorsk frå (“from”), Icelandic fram (“forward, on”), Icelandic frá (“from”), Albanian pre, prej. More at fro.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ffrom,frmo,frrom,rfom
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for from
Misspelling Variants of "from"
Frequency rank: #26 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "from"?
What does "from" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "from"?
How do you pronounce "from"?
What is the origin of the word "from"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter F in our English index: