keep
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "keep", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "keep" 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 "keep" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
keep is aEnglishverb. It means: To continue in (a course or mode of action); to not intermit or fall from; to uphold or maintain. Pronounced /kiːp/. It ranks #206 in English word frequency. Often confused with KP and key.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | keep |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /kiːp/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #206 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for keep is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kiːp/. Corpus data places it at rank #206 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 27 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for keep, with forms such as "ekep", "keepp", and "kep". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "KP", "key", "ken", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English kepen (“to keep, guard, look after, watch”), from Old English cēpan (“to seize, hold, observe”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōpijan, from Proto-Germanic *kōpijaną (“to look, heed, watch, observe”) (compare West Frisian kypje (“to look”)),… 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 keep, spelled K-E-E-P, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To continue in (a course or mode of action); to not intermit or fall from; to uphold or maintain.
- 2To remain faithful to a given promise or word.
- 3To hold the status of something.
- 4To hold the status of something.
- 5To hold the status of something.
- 6To hold the status of something.
- 7To hold the status of something.
- 8To hold the status of something.
- 9To hold the status of something.
- 10To hold the status of something.
- 11To hold the status of something.
- 12To hold the status of something.
- 13To hold the status of something.
- 14To hold the status of something.
- 15To hold or be held in a state.
- 16To hold or be held in a state.
- 17To hold or be held in a state.
- 18To hold or be held in a state.
- 19To hold or be held in a state.
- 20To wait for, keep watch for.
- 21To act as wicket-keeper.
- 22To take care; to be solicitous; to watch.
- 23To be in session; to take place.
- 24To observe; to adhere to; to fulfill; to not swerve from or violate.
- 25To visit (a place) often; to frequent.
- 26To observe or celebrate (a holiday).
- 27To put (something) back (to its original location or appropriate place); to put away.
Etymology
From Middle English kepen (“to keep, guard, look after, watch”), from Old English cēpan (“to seize, hold, observe”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōpijan, from Proto-Germanic *kōpijaną (“to look, heed, watch, observe”) (compare West Frisian kypje (“to look”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵab-, *ǵāb- (“to look after”) (compare Lithuanian žẽbti (“to eat reluctantly”), Russian забо́та (zabóta, “care, worry”)). The dialectal sense of the verb meaning “to put back” or “put away” may be analyzed as a semantic loan from a local language—compare Welsh cadw and Mandarin 收 (shōu).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ekep,keepp,kep,kepe,kkeep
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for keep
Misspelling Variants of "keep"
Frequency rank: #206 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter K in our English index: