glean
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "glean", 5-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 "glean" 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 "glean" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
glean is aEnglishverb. It means: To collect (fruit, grain, or other produce) from a field, an orchard, etc., after the main gathering or harvest. Pronounced /ɡliːn/. Often confused with glen and glee.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | glean |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɡliːn/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #40,264 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for glean is 5 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɡliːn/. Corpus data places it at rank #40,264 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for glean, with forms such as "gelan", "gglean", and "gleann". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "glen", "glee", "Gwen", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenen (“to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect”), from Old French glener, glainer (modern French glaner (“to gather, glean”)), from Late Latin glen(n)are, the pre… 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 glean, spelled G-L-E-A-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To collect (fruit, grain, or other produce) from a field, an orchard, etc., after the main gathering or harvest.
- 2To collect fruit, grain, or other produce from (a field, an orchard, etc.), after the main gathering or harvest.
- 3To gather (something, now chiefly something intangible such as experience or information) in small amounts over a period of time, often with some difficulty; to scrape together.
- 4To take away (someone's) possessions; to strip (someone) bare.
- 5Of an animal, especially a bat or a bird: to feed by picking up or plucking (prey, mainly arthropods such as insects) from various places.
- 6To collect or gather (things) into one mass.
- 7To cut off (straggling soldiers separated from their units) during a conflict; to isolate.
- 8To collect fruit, grain, or other produce after the main gathering or harvest.
- 9Of an animal, especially a bat or a bird: to feed by picking up or plucking prey, mainly arthropods such as insects, from various places.
Etymology
The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenen (“to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect”), from Old French glener, glainer (modern French glaner (“to gather, glean”)), from Late Latin glen(n)are, the present active infinitive of glen(n)ō (“to make a collection”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *glanos (“clean; clear”, adjective), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleh₁- (“to glow, shine; to be glowing or shining”). The noun is derived from Late Middle English glene (“collection of heads of grain gathered by gleaning; head of grain”), from Old French glene, glane (“act of gleaning; legal right to glean”) (modern French glane (“act of gleaning”)), from glener, glainer (verb): see above. cognates * Medieval Latin glana, glena (“bundle of ears of grain”)
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: gelan,gglean,gleann,glena,gllean,lgean
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for glean
Misspelling Variants of "glean"
Frequency rank: #40,264 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter G in our English index: