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highest

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

Letters

7 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "highest", 7-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 "highest" 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 "highest" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

highest is anEnglishadj. It means: superlative form of high: most high Pronounced /ˈhaɪ.ɪst/. It ranks #1,457 in English word frequency. Often confused with Hughes and highness.

Key facts for highest
PropertyValue
Headwordhighest
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdj
IPA/ˈhaɪ.ɪst/
Letters7
Frequency rank#1,457
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for highest is 7 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhaɪ.ɪst/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,457 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "superlative form of high: most high".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for highest, with forms such as "hgihest", "hhighest", and "higehst". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "Hughes", "highness", "higher", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is highest, spelled H-I-G-H-E-S-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    superlative form of high: most high

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: hgihest,hhighest,higehst,higghest,highesst,highestt,highets,highhest,highset,hihgest,ihghest

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for highest

Misspelling Variants of "highest"

hgihest7hhighest8higehst7higghest8highesst8highestt8highets7highhest8
Misspelling Variants of "highest"

Frequency rank: #1,457 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "highest"?
"highest" is spelled H-I-G-H-E-S-T. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈhaɪ.ɪst/.
What does "highest" mean?
As an adj, "highest" means: superlative form of high: most high
What words are commonly confused with "highest"?
"highest" is commonly confused with "Hughes", "highness", "higher". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "highest"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "highest" is /ˈhaɪ.ɪst/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "highest" come from?
"highest" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 H in our English index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.