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lask

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

Letters

4 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "lask", 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 "lask" 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 "lask" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

lask is aEnglishverb. It means: To have loose bowels; to suffer from diarrhoea. Pronounced /lɑːsk/.

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Key facts for lask
PropertyValue
Headwordlask
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/lɑːsk/
Letters4
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

lask is not present in the top-100,000 ranked English corpus, typical for technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary.

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for lask is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /lɑːsk/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To have loose bowels; to suffer from diarrhoea.".

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for lask in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.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: From Middle English lasken (“to diminish, weaken (the blood or other body fluids, body tissues, etc.); to thin (the blood through bloodletting); to alleviate (pain, sickness); to grow weak; to shorten (one’s life)”) [and other forms], from Old Northern Fren… 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 lask, spelled L-A-S-K, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    To have loose bowels; to suffer from diarrhoea.

Etymology

From Middle English lasken (“to diminish, weaken (the blood or other body fluids, body tissues, etc.); to thin (the blood through bloodletting); to alleviate (pain, sickness); to grow weak; to shorten (one’s life)”) [and other forms], from Old Northern French *lasquer, Old French lascher, laschier (“to let go of, release; to loosen, relax”) (modern French lâcher (“to let go of, release; to loosen”)), from Vulgar Latin *lascāre, *lassicāre, from Latin *laxicāre, the frequentative of Latin laxāre, the present active infinitive of laxō (“to relax, weaken; to release, undo; to make wide, open”), from laxus (“free, loose, slack; roomy, spacious, wide”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leg-, *(s)leh₁g- (“faint; weak”).

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "lask"?
"lask" is spelled L-A-S-K. The IPA pronunciation is /lɑːsk/.
What does "lask" mean?
As a verb, "lask" means: To have loose bowels; to suffer from diarrhoea.
How do you pronounce "lask"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "lask" is /lɑːsk/. 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 "lask"?
From Middle English lasken (“to diminish, weaken (the blood or other body fluids, body tissues, etc.); to thin (the blood through bloodletting); to alleviate (pain, sickness); to grow weak; to shorten (one’s life)”) [and other forms], from Old Nor... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Nearby English words

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

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.