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group

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

Letters

5 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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

group is aEnglishnoun. It means: A number of things or persons being in some relation to one another. Pronounced /ɡɹuːp/. It ranks #241 in English word frequency. Often confused with GRU and grow.

Key facts for group
PropertyValue
Headwordgroup
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ɡɹuːp/
Letters5
Frequency rank#241
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for group is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɡɹuːp/. Corpus data places it at rank #241 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for group, with forms such as "ggroup", "gorup", and "gropu". 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, "GRU", "grow", "grub", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *kruppazder. Frankish *kruppbor. Vulgar Latin *cruppus Italian gruppobor. French groupebor. ▲ Italian gruppobor. English group From French groupe (“cluster, group”), from Italian gruppo, groppo … 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 group, spelled G-R-O-U-P, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A number of things or persons being in some relation to one another.
  2. 2
    A set with an associative binary operation, under which there exists an identity element, and such that each element has an inverse.
  3. 3
    An effective divisor on a curve.
  4. 4
    A (usually small) group of people who perform music together.
  5. 5
    A small number (up to about fifty) of galaxies that are near each other.
  6. 6
    A column in the periodic table of chemical elements.
  7. 7
    A functional group.
  8. 8
    A subset of a culture or of a society.
  9. 9
    An air force formation.
  10. 10
    A collection of formations or rock strata.
  11. 11
    A number of users with the same rights with respect to accession, modification, and execution of files, computers and peripherals.
  12. 12
    An element of an espresso machine from which hot water pours into the portafilter.
  13. 13
    A number of eighth, sixteenth, etc., notes joined at the stems; sometimes rather indefinitely applied to any ornament made up of a few short notes.
  14. 14
    A set of teams playing each other in the same division, while not during the same period playing any teams that belong to other sets in the division.
  15. 15
    A commercial organization.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *kruppazder. Frankish *kruppbor. Vulgar Latin *cruppus Italian gruppobor. French groupebor. ▲ Italian gruppobor. English group From French groupe (“cluster, group”), from Italian gruppo, groppo (“a knot, heap, group, bag (of money)”). In the "group theory" sense, calqued from French groupe, a term coined by the young French mathematician Évariste Galois in 1830. Cognate with German Kropf (“crop, craw, bunch”); Old English cropp, croppa (“cluster, bunch, sprout, flower, berry, ear of corn, crop”) (whence English crop); Dutch krop (“craw”), Icelandic kroppr (“hump, bunch”). Doublet of crop and croup.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ggroup,gorup,gropu,groupp,grroup,gruop,rgoup

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for group

Misspelling Variants of "group"

ggroup6gorup5gropu5groupp6grroup6gruop5rgoup5
Misspelling Variants of "group"

Frequency rank: #241 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "group"?
"group" is spelled G-R-O-U-P. The IPA pronunciation is /ɡɹuːp/.
What does "group" mean?
As a noun, "group" means: A number of things or persons being in some relation to one another.
What words are commonly confused with "group"?
"group" is commonly confused with "GRU", "grow", "grub". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "group"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "group" is /ɡɹuːp/. 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 "group"?
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *grewbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *kruppazder. Frankish *kruppbor. Vulgar Latin *cruppus Italian gruppobor. French groupebor. ▲ Italian gruppobor. English group From French groupe (“cluster, group”), from Italian grupp... 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.