grasshopper
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
11 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "grasshopper", 11-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 "grasshopper" 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 "grasshopper" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
grasshopper is aEnglishnoun. It means: A mostly herbivorous insect of the order Orthoptera, noted for its ability to jump long distances and for the habit of some species communicating by stridulation; they are related to but distinct f... Pronounced /ˈɡɹɑːsˌhɒpə(ɹ)/.
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See how grasshopper compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | grasshopper |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɡɹɑːsˌhɒpə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #27,858 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for grasshopper is 11 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡɹɑːsˌhɒpə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #27,858 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 14 documented wrong-spelling variants for grasshopper, with forms such as "garsshopper", "ggrasshopper", and "grashopper". 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 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 Middle English grashoppere, alteration of earlier grashoppe, from Old English græshoppa (“grasshopper”). Equivalent to grass + hopper. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gäärshupper, Dutch grashupper, grashipper, German Low German Grashüpper, Gresshüpper, … 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 grasshopper, spelled G-R-A-S-S-H-O-P-P-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A mostly herbivorous insect of the order Orthoptera, noted for its ability to jump long distances and for the habit of some species communicating by stridulation; they are related to but distinct from crickets.
- 2A mostly herbivorous insect of the order Orthoptera, noted for its ability to jump long distances and for the habit of some species communicating by stridulation; they are related to but distinct from crickets.
- 3A mostly herbivorous insect of the order Orthoptera, noted for its ability to jump long distances and for the habit of some species communicating by stridulation; they are related to but distinct from crickets.
- 4A cocktail made with crème de menthe and optionally with crème de cacao.
- 5A young student in the initial stages of training who has been chosen on account of their obvious talent.
- 6A frequent user of marijuana.
- 7In ordinary square or upright pianos of London make, the escapement lever or jack, so made that it can be taken out and replaced with the key.
- 8A fairy chess piece which moves orthogonally or diagonally, but must hop over a piece to move or capture, landing one square beyond the hopped piece.
Etymology
From Middle English grashoppere, alteration of earlier grashoppe, from Old English græshoppa (“grasshopper”). Equivalent to grass + hopper. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gäärshupper, Dutch grashupper, grashipper, German Low German Grashüpper, Gresshüpper, German Grashüpfer, Danish græshoppe, Swedish gräshoppa, Norwegian gresshoppe.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: garsshopper,ggrasshopper,grashopper,grashsopper,grasshhopper,grasshopepr,grasshoper,grasshopperr,grasshoppre,grasshpoper,grassohpper,grrasshopper,grsashopper,rgasshopper
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for grasshopper
Misspelling Variants of "grasshopper"
Frequency rank: #27,858 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter G in our English index: