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home

/hoʊm/noun, verb, adjective, adverb

home is spelled H-O-M-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 646 times per million words in written English, the 152nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “home vs house” about 1,300 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, home means “One’s own dwelling place; the house or structure in which one lives; especially the house in which one lives with one's family; the habitual abode of…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of home is homes.

How many letters and syllables are in home?

Letters4: H-O-M-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing646 times per million words; the 152nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

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); 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is home?

Home appears 646 times per million words in written English, the 152nd 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 home?

  • UK /həʊm/
  • US /hoʊm/
  • Canada [hoːm]

Home has one syllable (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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Pvanp7-home.wav, En-us-home.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-Home.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with home

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

Sounds like: heaume, holm (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: ham.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with home?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as home from its last stressed vowel (/oʊm/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of home

  • homes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • hyem
  • homing participle, present
  • homed participle, past

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

What does home mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    One’s own dwelling place; the house or structure in which one lives; especially the house in which one lives with one's family; the habitual abode of one’s family.

  2. 2

    The place (residence, settlement, country, etc.), where a person was born or raised; a childhood or parental home; the home of one’s parents or guardian.

    Does she still live at home? - No, she moved out and got an apartment when she was 18, but she still lives in the city.

  3. 3

    The abiding place of the affections, especially of the domestic affections.

  4. 4

    A house that has been made homelike, to suit the comfort of those who live there.

    It's what you bring into a house that makes it a home

  5. 5

    A place of refuge, rest or care; an asylum.

    a home for outcasts

  6. 6

    The grave; the final rest; also, the native and eternal dwelling place of the soul.

    […] because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: […]

  7. 7

    Anything that serves the functions of a home, as comfort, safety, sense of belonging, etc.

  8. 8

    One’s native land; the place or country in which one dwells; the place where one’s ancestors dwell or dwelt.

    I've been to cities that never close down / From New York to Rio and old London town / But no matter how far or how wide I roam / I still call Australia home.

verb

  1. 1

    To return to its owner.

    The dog homed.

adjective

  1. 1

    Of, from, or pertaining to one’s dwelling or country; domestic; not foreign.

    home manufactures

  2. 2

    archaicThat strikes home; direct, pointed.

    a home truth

  3. 3

    obsoletePersonal, intimate.

  4. 4

    Relating to the home team (the team at whose venue a game is played).

    the home end, home advantage, home supporters

adverb

  1. 1

    To one's place of residence or one's customary or official location.

    go home

  2. 2

    To one's place of birth.

  3. 3

    To the place where it belongs; to the end of a course; to the full length.

    She drove the nail home

  4. 4

    To the home page.

    Click here to go home.

  5. 5

    At or in one's place of residence or one's customary or official location; at home.

  6. 6

    To a full and intimate degree; to the heart of the matter; fully, directly.

  7. 7

    UKinto the goal

  8. 8

    into the right, proper or stowed position

    sails sheeted home

noun

as Home
  1. 1

    A key that when pressed causes the cursor to go to the first character of the current line, or in a web browser to the top of the web page.

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

Home in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfoyer, domicile, chez soi (house or structure in which someone lives – see…), patrie (someone’s native land), à la maison, à domicile (at home)
GermanHeim, Zuhause, Wohnung, a, Ham (house or structure in which someone lives – see…), Heimat (someone’s native land)
Portugueselar, casa (house or structure in which someone lives – see…), terra (someone’s native land), em casa (at home), para casa (homewards)
Spanishhogar, jato (house or structure in which someone lives – see…), patria (someone’s native land), hogareño, casero, domiciliario (adjective)

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 home come from?

From Middle English hōm, from Old English hām, from Proto-West Germanic *haim, from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“home, village”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos (“village, home”), from the root *tḱey-. Doublet of heyem.

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

What to look up after home