inscribe
/ɪnˈskɹaɪb/verb
inscribe is spelled I-N-S-C-R-I-B-E. The wrong spelling people search most is enscribe: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 19 of all searches for the word. Inscribe is a verb meaning “To write or cut (words) onto (something, especially a hard surface, or a book to be given to another person)…”.
How many letters and syllables are in inscribe?
| Letters | 8: I-N-S-C-R-I-B-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 6 million words; the 75,877th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, enscribe, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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).
How do you spell inscribe?
Inscribe is spelled I-N-S-C-R-I-B-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 19 of the searches for inscribe 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 inscribe?
Inscribe appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 75,877th 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 inscribe?
- /ɪnˈskɹaɪb/
Inscribe has 2 syllables (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)-Vealhurl-inscribe.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of inscribe
- inscribes present, singular, he/she/it
- inscribing participle, present
- inscribed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does inscribe mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To write or cut (words) onto (something, especially a hard surface, or a book to be given to another person); to engrave.
I inscribed the book with a message for Kate.
- 2
To dedicate to someone.
- 3
To enter on a document or list; to enroll.
- 4
To draw a circle, sphere, etc. inside a polygon, polyhedron, etc. and tangent to all its sides.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Inscribe in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to write or cut words onto something:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | graver |
| German | beschriften |
| Spanish | inscribir |
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 inscribe come from?
Borrowed from Latin īnscrībō, from in- (“upon”) and scrībō (“to write”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).