gap
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
3 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "gap", 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 "gap" 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 "gap" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
gap is aEnglishnoun. It means: An opening in anything made by breaking or parting. Pronounced /ɡæp/. It ranks #3,166 in English word frequency. Often confused with go and GM.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gap |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɡæp/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #3,166 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for gap is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɡæp/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,166 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for gap 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, "go", "GM", "GB", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English gap, gappe, from Old Norse gap (“an empty space, gap, chasm”), from gapa (“to gape, scream”), from Proto-Germanic *gapōną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- (“to open wide, gape”). Related to Danish gab (“an expanse, space, gap”), Old Eng… 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 gap, spelled G-A-P, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1An opening in anything made by breaking or parting.
- 2An opening allowing passage or entrance.
- 3An opening that implies a breach or defect.
- 4A vacant space or time.
- 5A hiatus, a pause in something which is otherwise continuous.
- 6A vacancy, deficit, absence, or lack.
- 7A mountain or hill pass.
- 8A sheltered area of coast between two cliffs (mostly restricted to place names).
- 9The regions between the outfielders.
- 10The shortfall between the amount the medical insurer will pay to the service provider and the scheduled fee for the item.
- 11The disparity between the indigenous and non-indigenous communities with regard to life expectancy, education, health, etc.
- 12An unsequenced region in a sequence alignment.
- 13The vagina.
Etymology
From Middle English gap, gappe, from Old Norse gap (“an empty space, gap, chasm”), from gapa (“to gape, scream”), from Proto-Germanic *gapōną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- (“to open wide, gape”). Related to Danish gab (“an expanse, space, gap”), Old English ġeap (“open space, expanse”). Doublet of gape.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #3,166 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter G in our English index: