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guitar

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

Letters

6 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "guitar", 6-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 "guitar" 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 "guitar" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

guitar is aEnglishnoun. It means: A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick). Pronounced /ɡɪˈtɑː/. It ranks #3,106 in English word frequency. Often confused with Gupta and gutter.

Key facts for guitar
PropertyValue
Headwordguitar
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ɡɪˈtɑː/
Letters6
Frequency rank#3,106
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for guitar is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɡɪˈtɑː/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,106 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for guitar, with forms such as "gguitar", "giutar", and "guiatr". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "Gupta", "gutter", "Gustav", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Ancient Greek κῐθᾰ́ρᾱ (kĭthắrā)bor. Aramaic קיתראbor. Arabic قِيثَارَة (qīṯāra)bor. Old Spanish guitarra Spanish guitarrabor. English guitar From Spanish guitarra, from Arabic قِيثَارَة (qīṯāra), from Ancient Greek κῐθᾰ́ρᾱ (kĭthắrā). Doublet … 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 guitar, spelled G-U-I-T-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 stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick).
  2. 2
    Any type of musical instrument of the lute family, characterized by a flat back, along with a neck whose upper surface is in the same plane as the soundboard, with strings along the neck and parallel to the soundboard.

Etymology

Etymology tree Ancient Greek κῐθᾰ́ρᾱ (kĭthắrā)bor. Aramaic קיתראbor. Arabic قِيثَارَة (qīṯāra)bor. Old Spanish guitarra Spanish guitarrabor. English guitar From Spanish guitarra, from Arabic قِيثَارَة (qīṯāra), from Ancient Greek κῐθᾰ́ρᾱ (kĭthắrā). Doublet of cithara, cither, and zither.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: gguitar,giutar,guiatr,guitarr,guitra,guittar,gutiar,ugitar

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for guitar

Misspelling Variants of "guitar"

gguitar7giutar6guiatr6guitarr7guitra6guittar7gutiar6ugitar6
Misspelling Variants of "guitar"

Frequency rank: #3,106 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "guitar"?
"guitar" is spelled G-U-I-T-A-R. The IPA pronunciation is /ɡɪˈtɑː/.
What does "guitar" mean?
As a noun, "guitar" means: A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick).
What words are commonly confused with "guitar"?
"guitar" is commonly confused with "Gupta", "gutter", "Gustav". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "guitar"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "guitar" is /ɡɪˈtɑː/. 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 "guitar"?
Etymology tree Ancient Greek κῐθᾰ́ρᾱ (kĭthắrā)bor. Aramaic קיתראbor. Arabic قِيثَارَة (qīṯāra)bor. Old Spanish guitarra Spanish guitarrabor. English guitar From Spanish guitarra, from Arabic قِيثَارَة (qīṯāra), from Ancient Greek κῐθᾰ́ρᾱ (kĭthắrā)... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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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.