gerund
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "gerund", 6-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 "gerund" 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 "gerund" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
gerund is aEnglishnoun. It means: A verbal form that functions as a verbal noun. (In English, a gerund has the same spelling as a present participle, but functions differently; however, this distinction may be ambiguous or unclear ... Pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɛɹənd/.
Compare similar words
See how gerund compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gerund |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈd͡ʒɛɹənd/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #91,560 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for gerund is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈd͡ʒɛɹənd/. Corpus data places it at rank #91,560 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for gerund in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin gerundium, from gerendus (“which is to be carried out”), future passive participle (gerundive) of gerō (“carry, bear”). 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 gerund, spelled G-E-R-U-N-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A verbal form that functions as a verbal noun. (In English, a gerund has the same spelling as a present participle, but functions differently; however, this distinction may be ambiguous or unclear and so is no longer made in some modern texts such as A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language)
- 2In some languages such as Dutch, Italian or Russian, a verbal form similar to a present participle, but functioning as an adverb to form adverbial phrases or continuous tense. These constructions have various names besides gerund, depending on the language, such as conjunctive participles, active participles, adverbial participles, transgressives, etc.
Etymology
From Latin gerundium, from gerendus (“which is to be carried out”), future passive participle (gerundive) of gerō (“carry, bear”).
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #91,560 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "gerund"?
What does "gerund" mean?
How do you pronounce "gerund"?
What is the origin of the word "gerund"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter G in our English index: