king
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "king", 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 "king" 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 "king" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
king is aEnglishnoun. It means: A male monarch; a man who heads a monarchy; in an absolute monarchy, the supreme ruler of his nation. Pronounced /ˈkɪŋ/. It ranks #697 in English word frequency. Often confused with kit and kun.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | king |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #697 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for king is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #697 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for king, with forms such as "ikng", "kign", and "kingg". 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, "kit", "kun", "kip", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English king, kyng, from Old English cyng, cyning (“king”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuning, from Proto-Germanic *kuningaz, *kunungaz (“king”), equivalent to kin + -ing. Doublet of cyning and knez. Cognate with Scots king, keeng (“king”), North… 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 king, spelled K-I-N-G, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A male monarch; a man who heads a monarchy; in an absolute monarchy, the supreme ruler of his nation.
- 2The monarch with the most power and authority in a monarchy, regardless of sex.
- 3A male leader of a traditional Aboriginal group, often used as a title by colonists.
- 4A powerful or majorly influential person; someone who holds the preeminent position.
- 5Something that has a preeminent position.
- 6A component of certain games.
- 7A component of certain games.
- 8A component of certain games.
- 9A component of certain games.
- 10A king skin.
- 11A male dragonfly; a drake.
- 12A king-sized bed.
- 13A vertex in a directed graph which can reach every other vertex via a path with a length of at most 2.
Etymology
From Middle English king, kyng, from Old English cyng, cyning (“king”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuning, from Proto-Germanic *kuningaz, *kunungaz (“king”), equivalent to kin + -ing. Doublet of cyning and knez. Cognate with Scots king, keeng (“king”), North Frisian kining, köning (“king”), Saterland Frisian Kening (“king”), West Frisian kening (“king”), Dutch koning (“king”), Low German Koning, Köning (“king”), German König (“king”), Danish konge (“king”), Swedish konung, kung (“king”), Norwegian konge (“king”), Icelandic konungur, kóngur (“king”), Polish ksiądz (“priest”), Russian князь (knjazʹ, “prince”), Old Church Slavonic кънѧѕь (kŭnędzĭ), Romanian chinez, Finnish kuningas (“king”), Estonian kuningas, Ingrian kunigas, Veps kunigaz and Võro kuning. Eclipsed non-native Middle English roy (“king”) (Early Modern English roy), borrowed from Old French roi, rei, rai (“king”). The verb is inherited from Middle English kingen, kyngen (“to perform the duties of a king”), itself from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ikng,kign,kingg,kinng,kking,knig
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for king
Misspelling Variants of "king"
Frequency rank: #697 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "king"?
What does "king" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "king"?
How do you pronounce "king"?
What is the origin of the word "king"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter K in our English index: