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PlainSpell

ground

/ɡɹaʊnd/noun, verb, adjective

ground is spelled G-R-O-U-N-D: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 141 times per million words in written English, the 737th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ground means “The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ground is grounds.

How many letters and syllables are in ground?

Letters6: G-R-O-U-N-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing141 times per million words; the 737th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is ground?

Ground appears 141 times per million words in written English, the 737th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce ground?

  • US /ɡɹaʊnd/
  • /ɡɹʊnd/

Ground has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-ground.ogg, En-au-ground.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with ground?

11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ground from its last stressed vowel (/aʊnd/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of ground

  • grounds plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • grounding participle, present
  • grounded participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does ground mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground.

    Look, I found a ten dollar bill on the ground!

  2. 2

    Terrain.

  3. 3

    Soil, earth.

    The worm crawls through the ground.

  4. 4

    The bottom of a body of water.

  5. 5

    Basis, foundation, groundwork, legwork.

  6. 6

    Reason, (epistemic) justification, cause.

    You will need to show good grounds for your action.

  7. 7

    Background, context, framework, surroundings.

  8. 8

    The area on which a battle is fought, particularly as referring to the area occupied by one side or the other. Often, according to the eventualities, "to give ground" or "to gain ground".

verb

  1. 1

    USTo connect (an electrical conductor or device) to a ground.

  2. 2

    To electrocute.

  3. 3

    To punish, especially a child or teenager, by forcing them to stay at home and/or give up certain privileges.

    If you don't clean your room, I'll have no choice but to ground you.

  4. 4

    To forbid (an aircraft or pilot) to fly.

    Because of the bad weather, all flights were grounded.

  5. 5

    To give a basic education in a particular subject; to instruct in elements or first principles.

    Jim was grounded in maths.

  6. 6

    To place a bat or part of the body on the ground to avoid being run out.

  7. 7

    To hit a ground ball. Compare fly (verb (regular)) and line (verb).

  8. 8

    To place something on the ground.

  9. 9

    simple past and past participle of grind (a form of grind)

    I ground the coffee up nicely.

adjective

  1. 1

    Crushed, or reduced to small particles.

    ground mustard seed

  2. 2

    Processed by grinding.

    lenses of ground glass

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate ground?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of ground: GND.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Ground in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsol, terre (surface of the Earth), fond (bottom of a body of water), base, fondation (basis, foundation, groundwork), gronder (to require a child to remain at home)
GermanErde, Erdboden, Land, Grund, Boden (surface of the Earth), Hausarrest geben (to require a child to remain at home)
Portuguesesolo, chão (surface of the Earth), fundo (bottom of a body of water), fundamento (basis, foundation, groundwork), deixar de castigo (to require a child to remain at home), terra (soil, earth)
Spanishsuelo, huello (surface of the Earth), fondo (basis, foundation, groundwork), campo de futbol (football stadium), polo a tierra, toma de tierra (electrical conductor connected to point of zero…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does ground come from?

From Middle English ground, from Old English grund, from Proto-West Germanic *grundu, from Proto-Germanic *grunduz. Cognate with West Frisian grûn, Dutch grond and German Grund. (to punish): Compare (to bring) down to earth, to come down to earth.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after ground