have
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "have", 4-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 "have" 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 "have" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
have is aEnglishverb. It means: To possess, own. Pronounced /hæv/. It ranks #20 in English word frequency. Often confused with he and hv.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | have |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /hæv/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #20 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for have is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /hæv/. Corpus data places it at rank #20 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 33 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for have, with forms such as "ahve", "haev", and "havve". 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, "he", "hv", "HIV", 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 *kap-der. Proto-Germanic *habjaną Proto-West Germanic *habbjan Old English habban Middle English haven English have From Middle English haven, from Old English habban (“to have”), from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Pr… 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 have, spelled H-A-V-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To possess, own.
- 2To hold, as something at someone's disposal.
- 3To include as a part, ingredient, or feature.
- 4Used to state the existence or presence of someone in a specified relationship with the subject.
- 5To consume or use up (a particular substance or resource, especially food or drink).
- 6To undertake or perform (an action or activity).
- 7To be scheduled to attend, undertake or participate in.
- 8To experience, go through, undergo.
- 9To be afflicted with, suffer from.
- 10Used in forming the perfect aspect.
- 11Used as an interrogative verb before a pronoun to form a tag question, echoing a previous use of 'have' as an auxiliary verb or, in certain cases, main verb. (For further discussion, see the appendix English tag questions.)
- 12See have to.
- 13To give birth to.
- 14To obtain.
- 15To engage in sexual intercourse with.
- 16To accept as a romantic partner.
- 17To cause to, by a command, request or invitation.
- 18To cause to be.
- 19To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is a small clause.)
- 20To depict as being.
- 21To defeat in a fight; take.
- 22To inflict punishment or retribution on.
- 23To be able to speak (a language).
- 24To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.
- 25To trick, to deceive.
- 26To allow; to tolerate.
- 27To believe, buy, be taken in by.
- 28To host someone; to take in as a guest.
- 29To get a reading, measurement, or result from an instrument or calculation.
- 30To consider a court proceeding that has been completed; to begin deliberations on a case.
- 31To make an observation of (a bird species).
- 32To capture or actively hold someone's attention or interest.
- 33To grasp the meaning of; comprehend.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kap-der. Proto-Germanic *habjaną Proto-West Germanic *habbjan Old English habban Middle English haven English have From Middle English haven, from Old English habban (“to have”), from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to have”), durative of *habjaną (“to lift, take up”), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂pyéti, present tense of *kap- (“to take, seize, catch”). Related to heave. Since there is no common Indo-European root for a transitive possessive verb have (notice that Latin habeō is not etymologically related to English have), Proto-Indo-European probably lacked the have structure. Instead, the third person forms of be were used, with the possessor in dative case, compare Latin mihi est / sunt, literally to me is / are. Cognates Cognate with Scots hae (“to have”), North Frisian haa, heewe (“to have”), Saterland Frisian häbe, hääbe (“to have”), West Frisian hawwe (“to have”), Afrikaans hê (“to have”), Alemannic German haa, heen, hoh, hä, häbä, hè (“to have”), Bavarian hobm, hobn, hoom, håbn (“to have”), Cimbrian haban, hen, håm (“to have”), Dutch, Low German hebben (“to have”), German haben (“to have”), Limburgish haane, höbbe (“to have”), Luxembourgish hunn (“to have”), Mòcheno hom (“to have”), Vilamovian hon (“to have”), Yiddish האָבן (hobn, “to have”), Danish have (“to have”), Elfdalian åvå (“to have”), Faroese hava (“to have”), Icelandic hafa (“to have”), Norwegian Bokmål ha (“to have”), Norwegian Nynorsk ha, hava, have, hå (“to have”), Swedish ha, hafva, hava (“to have”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (haban, “to have”), Albanian kap (“to grab, catch, grip”), Latin capiō (“take”, verb), Russian хапать (xapatʹ, “to seize”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ahve,haev,havve,hhave,hvae
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for have
Misspelling Variants of "have"
Frequency rank: #20 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "have"?
What does "have" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "have"?
How do you pronounce "have"?
What is the origin of the word "have"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter H in our English index: