history
his·to·ry/ˈhɪs.tə.ɹi/noun
history is spelled H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, 3 syllables: his·to·ry. The wrong spelling people search most is histroy: about 270 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 435 of all searches for the word. History is a noun meaning “The aggregate of past events, both unrecorded and recorded”. The plural of history is histories.
How many letters and syllables are in history?
| Letters | 7: H-I-S-T-O-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: his·to·ry |
| In writing | 245 times per million words; the 402nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, histroy, about 270 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell history?
History is spelled H-I-S-T-O-R-Y. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 373 of the searches for history in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is history?
History appears 245 times per million words in written English, the 402nd 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 history?
- US /ˈhɪs.tə.ɹi/
- US /ˈhɪs.tɹi/
- British /ˈhɪst͡ʃ(ə)ɹɪj/
History has 3 syllables, split his·to·ry in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-history.ogg, En-us-history.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of history
- histories plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- hx
- historying participle, present
- historied participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does history mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The aggregate of past events, both unrecorded and recorded.
The history of mammals stretches back many millions of years.
- 2
The empirical study of past events, as distinct from literature, myth, or scripture; the assessment of notable events.
He teaches Latin American history at the university and publishes books about the Cold War.
- 3
The portion of the past that is known and recorded by this field of study, as opposed to all earlier and unknown times that preceded it.
Near-synonym: ages
- 4
A set of events involving an entity.
a long and sordid history
- 5
A record or narrative description of past events.
I really enjoyed Shakespeare's tragedies more than his histories.
- 6
A list of past and continuing medical conditions of an individual or family.
A personal medical history is required for the insurance policy.
- 7
A record of previous user events, especially of visited web pages in a browser.
I visited a great site yesterday but forgot the URL. Luckily, I didn't clear my history.
- 8
informalSomething that no longer exists or is no longer relevant.
I told him that if he doesn't get his act together, he's history.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo narrate or record.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate history?
Wiktionary records 4 abbreviations of history: Hx, hist, histo, hx.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
History in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | histoire , passé , historique, anamnèse |
| German | Geschichte, Historie , Erzählung , Geschichtswissenschaft , Gschicht |
| Portuguese | história, histórico , documentário , histórico médico |
| Spanish | historia , antecedentes, historia clínica, historial |
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.