fur
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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3 characters
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English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "fur", 3-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 "fur" 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 "fur" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
fur is aEnglishnoun. It means: The hairy coat of various mammal species, especially when fine, soft and thick. Pronounced /fɜː/. It ranks #6,789 in English word frequency. Often confused with FW and fy.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fur |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fɜː/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #6,789 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fur is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɜː/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,789 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for fur in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "FW", "fy", "FYI", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English furre, forre, from Anglo-Norman forre, fuerre (“a case; sheath”), from Frankish *fōdar, from Proto-West Germanic *fōdr, from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą (“sheath”) (compare Old English fōdor (“sheaf”), Dutch voering (“lining”), German Futter (… 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 fur, spelled F-U-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The hairy coat of various mammal species, especially when fine, soft and thick.
- 2The hairy skins of animals used as a material for clothing.
- 3An animal pelt used to make, trim or line clothing.
- 4A garment made of fur.
- 5A coating or lining resembling fur in function and/or appearance.
- 6A coating or lining resembling fur in function and/or appearance.
- 7A coating or lining resembling fur in function and/or appearance.
- 8A coating or lining resembling fur in function and/or appearance.
- 9One of several patterns or diapers used as tinctures, such as ermine and vair.
- 10Rabbits and hares, as opposed to partridges and pheasants (called feathers).
- 11A furry, a member of the furry fandom.
- 12Human body hair, especially when abundant.
- 13Pubic hair.
- 14Sexual attractiveness.
Etymology
From Middle English furre, forre, from Anglo-Norman forre, fuerre (“a case; sheath”), from Frankish *fōdar, from Proto-West Germanic *fōdr, from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą (“sheath”) (compare Old English fōdor (“sheaf”), Dutch voering (“lining”), German Futter (“lining”), Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐌳𐍂 (fōdr, “sheath”)), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-, *poh₂- (“to protect”) (compare Lithuanian piemuō (“protection”), Ancient Greek πῶῠ̈ (pôŭ̈, “flock”), πῶμα (pôma, “lid”), ποιμήν (poimḗn, “shepherd”), Old Armenian հաւրան (hawran, “herd, flock”), Northern Kurdish pawan (“to watch over”), Sanskrit पाति (pāti, “he watches, protects”). The verb is from Middle English furren, from Anglo-Norman furrer, forrer, fourrer (“to line, stuff, fill”), from the noun.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #6,789 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter F in our English index: