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PlainSpell

full

/fʊl/adjective, noun, verb

full is spelled F-U-L-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 347 times per million words in written English, the 263rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, full means “Containing the maximum possible amount that can fit in the space available” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in full?

Letters4: F-U-L-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing347 times per million words; the 263rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is full?

Full appears 347 times per million words in written English, the 263rd 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 full?

  • /fʊl/
  • [fʊɫ]
  • /fʉl/

Full 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-full.ogg, EN-AU_ck1_full.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with full

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

fool vs full0 B

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of full

  • fuller comparative
  • more full comparative
  • fullest superlative
  • most full superlative
  • fulls plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • fulling participle, present
  • fulled participle, past

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

What does full mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Containing the maximum possible amount that can fit in the space available.

    The jugs were full to the point of overflowing.

  2. 2

    Complete; with nothing omitted.

    Our book gives full treatment to the subject of angling.

  3. 3

    Surjective as a map of morphisms

  4. 4

    Including all morphisms. Formally: Such that for every pairs of objects (X, Y) in S, the hom-sets operatorname Hom_S(X,Y) and operatorname Hom_C(X,Y) are equal.

  5. 5

    Total, entire.

    She had tattoos the full length of her arms. He was prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

  6. 6

    Completely empowered, authorized or qualified (in some role); not limited.

    full member

  7. 7

    informalHaving eaten to satisfaction, having a "full" stomach; replete.

    "I'm full," he said, pushing back from the table.

  8. 8

    informalReplete, abounding with.

    This movie doesn't make sense; it's full of plot holes.

noun

  1. 1

    Utmost measure or extent; highest state or degree; the state, position, or moment of fullness; fill.

    I was fed to the full.

  2. 2

    The phase of the moon when its entire face is illuminated, full moon.

    It is like, that the brain of man waxeth moister and fuller upon the full of the moon: …

  3. 3

    A flip involving a complete turn in midair.

  4. 4

    An aerialist maneuver consisting of a backflip in conjunction and simultaneous with a complete twist.

verb

  1. 1

    To become full or wholly illuminated.

  2. 2

    To baptise.

  3. 3

    To make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing; to waulk or walk.

adverb

  1. 1

    archaicFully; quite; very; thoroughly; completely; exactly; entirely.

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

Full in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchplein (containing the maximum possible amount), complet (complete), total, entier (total, entire), rassasié, repu (satisfied, in relation to eating)
Germanvoll, vole (containing the maximum possible amount), komplett, vollständig (complete), gesamt, ganz (total, entire)
Portuguesecheio (containing the maximum possible amount), completo (complete), total, inteiro (total, entire), satisfeito (satisfied, in relation to eating)
Spanishlleno, ful, tupido, poblado (containing the maximum possible amount), completo (complete), entero (total, entire)

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 full come from?

From Middle English ful, from Old English full (“full”), from Proto-West Germanic *full, from Proto-Germanic *fullaz (“full”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós (“full”). Germanic cognates include West Frisian fol, Low German vull, Dutch vol, German voll, Danish fuld, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish full. Proto-Indo-European cognates include English plenty (via Latin, compare plēnus), Welsh llawn, Russian по́лный (pólnyj), Lithuanian pilnas, Persian پر (por), Sanskrit पूर्ण (pūrṇá). See also fele and Scots fou (whence the English doublet fou (“drunk”)).

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

What to look up after full