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incarnate

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

Letters

9 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "incarnate", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "incarnate" 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 "incarnate" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

incarnate is anEnglishadj. It means: Embodied in flesh; given a bodily, especially a human, form; personified. Pronounced /ɪnˈkɑːɹ.nɪt/.

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Key facts for incarnate
PropertyValue
Headwordincarnate
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdj
IPA/ɪnˈkɑːɹ.nɪt/
Letters9
Frequency rank#29,316
Misspellings tracked13
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for incarnate is 9 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪnˈkɑːɹ.nɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #29,316 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for incarnate, with forms such as "icnarnate", "inacrnate", and "incanrate". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in 1395, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English incarnat(e) (“(of God or Christ) embodied in human form or flesh, incarnate; provided with new tissues, healed; (with devel, in curses) bloody”), borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin inc… 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 incarnate, spelled I-N-C-A-R-N-A-T-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Embodied in flesh; given a bodily, especially a human, form; personified.
  2. 2
    Flesh-colored; crimson.

Etymology

First attested in 1395, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English incarnat(e) (“(of God or Christ) embodied in human form or flesh, incarnate; provided with new tissues, healed; (with devel, in curses) bloody”), borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin incarnātus, perfect passive participle of incarnor (“to be made flesh, become incarnate”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- + Latin carō (“flesh”, carn- in its oblique stem) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: icnarnate,inacrnate,incanrate,incarante,incarnaet,incarnatte,incarnnate,incarntae,incarrnate,inccarnate,incranate,inncarnate,nicarnate

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for incarnate

Misspelling Variants of "incarnate"

icnarnate9inacrnate9incanrate9incarante9incarnaet9incarnatte10incarnnate10incarntae9
Misspelling Variants of "incarnate"

Frequency rank: #29,316 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "incarnate"?
"incarnate" is spelled I-N-C-A-R-N-A-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ɪnˈkɑːɹ.nɪt/.
What does "incarnate" mean?
As an adj, "incarnate" means: Embodied in flesh; given a bodily, especially a human, form; personified.
What are common misspellings of "incarnate"?
Common misspellings include "icnarnate", "inacrnate", "incanrate", "incarante", "incarnaet". The correct spelling is "incarnate".
How do you pronounce "incarnate"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "incarnate" is /ɪnˈkɑːɹ.nɪt/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "incarnate"?
First attested in 1395, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English incarnat(e) (“(of God or Christ) embodied in human form or flesh, incarnate; provided with new tissues, healed; (with devel, in curses) bloody”), borrowed from Ecclesiastical... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter I in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.