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grammar

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

7 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "grammar", 7-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 "grammar" 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 "grammar" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

grammar is aEnglishnoun. It means: A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general. Pronounced /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/. It ranks #5,420 in English word frequency. Often confused with Grammy and Grammer.

Key facts for grammar
PropertyValue
Headwordgrammar
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/
Letters7
Frequency rank#5,420
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of grammar in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for grammar is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,420 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for grammar, with forms such as "garmmar", "ggrammar", and "gramamr". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "Grammy", "Grammer", "gamma", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English gramere, from Old French gramaire (“classical learning”), from unattested Vulgar Latin *grammāria, an alteration of Latin grammatica, from Ancient Greek γραμματική (grammatikḗ, “skilled in writing”), from γράμμα (grámma, “line of writing… 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 grammar, spelled G-R-A-M-M-A-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
  2. 2
    A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
  3. 3
    Actual or presumed prescriptive notions about the correct use of a language.
  4. 4
    A book describing the grammar (noun sense 1 or noun sense 2) of a language.
  5. 5
    A formal system specifying the syntax of a language.
  6. 6
    A formal system defining a formal language.
  7. 7
    The basic rules or principles of a field of knowledge or a particular skill.
  8. 8
    A book describing these rules or principles; a textbook.
  9. 9
    Ellipsis of grammar school.
  10. 10
    A set of component patterns, along with the rules for connecting them, which can be combined to form more complex patterns such as large still lifes, oscillators, and spaceships.

Etymology

From Middle English gramere, from Old French gramaire (“classical learning”), from unattested Vulgar Latin *grammāria, an alteration of Latin grammatica, from Ancient Greek γραμματική (grammatikḗ, “skilled in writing”), from γράμμα (grámma, “line of writing”), from γράφω (gráphō, “write”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to carve, scratch”). Displaced native Old English stæfcræft; a doublet of glamour, glamoury, gramarye, and grimoire. Piecewise doublet of grammatic.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: garmmar,ggrammar,gramamr,gramar,grammarr,grammra,grmamar,grrammar,rgammar

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for grammar

Misspelling Variants of "grammar"

garmmar7ggrammar8gramamr7gramar6grammarr8grammra7grmamar7grrammar8
Misspelling Variants of "grammar"

Frequency rank: #5,420 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "grammar"?
"grammar" is spelled G-R-A-M-M-A-R. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/.
What does "grammar" mean?
As a noun, "grammar" means: A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
What words are commonly confused with "grammar"?
"grammar" is commonly confused with "Grammy", "Grammer", "gamma". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "grammar"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "grammar" is /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "grammar"?
From Middle English gramere, from Old French gramaire (“classical learning”), from unattested Vulgar Latin *grammāria, an alteration of Latin grammatica, from Ancient Greek γραμματική (grammatikḗ, “skilled in writing”), from γράμμα (grámma, “line ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter G in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.