further
/ˈfɝ.ðɚ/verb, adjective, adverb
further is spelled F-U-R-T-H-E-R. The wrong spelling people search most is furher: about 370 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Further is a verb meaning “To help forward; to assist”.
How many letters and syllables are in further?
| Letters | 7: F-U-R-T-H-E-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 204 times per million words; the 494th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, furher, about 370 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| 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 do you spell further?
Further is spelled F-U-R-T-H-E-R. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for further in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is further?
Further appears 204 times per million words in written English, the 494th 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 further?
- UK /ˈfɜːðə/
- US /ˈfɝ.ðɚ/
- British /ˈfəːðə/
Further has 2 syllables (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-GB-further.ogg, En-us-further.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with further
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: farther.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of further
- furthers present, singular, he/she/it
- furthering participle, present
- furthered participle, past
- farther
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does further mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To help forward; to assist.
- 2
To encourage growth; to support progress or growth of something; to promote.
Further the economy.
adjective
- 1
More distant; relatively distant.
See those two lampposts? Run to the further one.
- 2
More, additional.
I have one further comment to make.
adverb
- 1
To, at or over a greater distance in space, time or other extent.
I can run further than you.
- 2
To a greater extent or degree.
Of the two civilisations, this one was further advanced.
- 3
Beyond what is already stated or is already the case.
Chapter 10 further explains the ideas introduced in Chapter 9.
- 4
Also; in addition; furthermore; moreover.
It is overlong, and further, it makes no sense.
- 5
Following on (from).
Further to our recent telephone call, I am writing to clarify certain points raised.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Further in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | encourager , ultérieur , plus loin |
| Portuguese | desenvolver, incentivar, estimular , mais distantemente, mais de longe , além disso |
| Spanish | exhortar, incentivar, estimular, fomentar, desarrollar, impulsar |
| German | des Weiteren, zusätzlich, zudem, im Weiteren , weiter, ferner |
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 further come from?
From Middle English further, forther, from Old English forþor, furþor (“further”, adverb), from Proto-West Germanic *furþer, from Proto-Indo-European *per- (a common preposition), equivalent to fore + -ther (a vestigial comparative ending still present in such words as other, either, whether, and, in altered form, in after); or as sometimes stated, as forth + -er. Cognate with Scots forder, furder (“further”), Saterland Frisian foarder (“further”), West Frisian fierder (“further”), Dutch verder (“further”), German fürder (“further”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).