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PlainSpell

italic

/ɪˈtælɪk/adjective, noun

italic is spelled I-T-A-L-I-C: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,267th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, italic means “Designed to resemble a handwriting style developed in Italy in the 16th century” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in italic?

Letters6: I-T-A-L-I-C
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 40,267th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is italic?

Italic appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,267th 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 italic?

  • UK /ɪˈtælɪk/
  • US /ɪˈtælɪk/
  • US /aɪˈtælɪk/

Italic has 3 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-italic.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Knabrupt-italic.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-Italic.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with italic?

9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as italic from its last stressed vowel (/ælɪk/):

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 italic

  • italick
  • italics plural

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

What does italic mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Designed to resemble a handwriting style developed in Italy in the 16th century.

  2. 2

    Having letters that slant or lean to the right; oblique.

    The text was impossible to read: every other word was underlined or in a bold or italic font.

noun

  1. 1

    A typeface in which the letters slant to the right.

  2. 2

    An oblique handwriting style, such as used by Italian calligraphers of the Renaissance.

adjective

as Italic
  1. 1

    Of or relating to the Italian peninsula.

  2. 2

    Pertaining to a subfamily of the Centum branch of the Indo-European language family, that includes Latin and other languages (as Oscan, Umbrian) spoken by the peoples of ancient Italy

  3. 3

    datedOsco-Umbrian; an extinct branch of such language family, which excludes the Latino-Faliscan languages

    The ancient Italic languages that are now extinct include Oscan, Umbrian, and South Picene.

  4. 4

    Pertaining to various peoples that lived in Italy before the establishment of the Roman Empire, or to any of several alphabet systems used by those peoples.

    There were several Italic alphabets, one being the Etruscan alphabet.

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

How do you abbreviate italic?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of italic: ital.

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

Italic in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchitalique (designed to resemble a handwriting style)
Germankursiv (designed to resemble a handwriting style), Kursivschrift, Kursivdruck (typeface whose letters slant to the right), italisch (of or relating to the Italian peninsula)
Portugueseitálico (designed to resemble a handwriting style)
Spanishcursivo, bastardillo, itálico (designed to resemble a handwriting style), cursiva, itálica, letra bastardilla (typeface whose letters slant to the right)

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 italic come from?

Named after the nation of Italy, as it was first used by an Italian printer, Aldo Manuzio, around 1500. Literally Italy + -ic.

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

What to look up after italic