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PlainSpell

harvest

/ˈhɑɹ.vəst/noun, verb

harvest is spelled H-A-R-V-E-S-T: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, harvest means “The process of gathering the ripened crop; harvesting” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of harvest is harvests.

How many letters and syllables are in harvest?

Letters7: H-A-R-V-E-S-T
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing11 times per million words; the 6,784th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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).

How common is harvest?

Harvest appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th 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 harvest?

  • US /ˈhɑɹ.vəst/
  • US /ˈhɑɹ.vɪst/
  • UK /ˈhɑː(ɹ)vɪst/

Harvest has 2 syllables (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-harvest.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of harvest

  • harvests plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • harvist
  • hervest
  • harst
  • hairst
  • harvesting participle, present
  • harvested participle, past

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

What does harvest mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    The process of gathering the ripened crop; harvesting.

    The constant rain made the harvest a nightmare this year.

  2. 2

    The yield of harvesting, i.e., the gathered crops or fruits.

    This year's cotton harvest was great but the corn harvest was disastrous.

  3. 3

    The product or result of any exertion or course of action; reward or consequences.

    The surveillance mission yielded a healthy harvest of intel.

  4. 4

    The season of gathering ripened crops; specifically, the time of reaping and gathering grain.

  5. 5

    UKThe third season of the year; autumn; fall.

    Harvest is usually very damp and rainy.

  6. 6

    A modern pagan ceremony held on or around the autumn equinox, which is in the harvesting season.

verb

  1. 1

    To bring in a harvest; reap; glean.

    We harvested the apples in September already.

  2. 2

    To take a living organism as part of a managed process to gather food or resources, often with the intention of maintaining a healthy population.

    An efficient rifle or shotgun can harvest a deer for venison.

  3. 3

    To take (an organ) from an organ donor.

  4. 4

    To be occupied bringing in a harvest.

    We're going to harvest day and night, because the weather is about to turn sour.

  5. 5

    To win, achieve a gain.

    The rising star harvested well-deserved acclaim, even an Oscar under 21.

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

Harvest in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchrécolte (process of gathering the ripened crop), moisson (yield of harvesting), récolter, moissonner, recueillir (to bring in a harvest; reap)
GermanErnte (process of gathering the ripened crop), ernten, einfahren (to bring in a harvest; reap), Ertrag (product or result of any exertion), die Ernte einfahren (to be occupied bringing in a harvest), erlangen (to win, achieve a gain)
Portuguesecolheita (process of gathering the ripened crop), colher, segar (to bring in a harvest; reap), messe (product or result of any exertion)
Spanishcosecha (process of gathering the ripened crop), cosechar (to bring in a harvest; reap)

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 harvest come from?

From Middle English harvest, hervest, from Old English hærfest (“autumn, harvest-time; August”), from Proto-West Germanic *harbist, from Proto-Germanic *harbistaz (“harvest-time, autumn, fall”), from *harbaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kerp-.

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

What to look up after harvest