lay
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
3 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "lay", 3-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 "lay" 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 "lay" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
lay is aEnglishverb. It means: To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position. Pronounced /leɪ/. It ranks #2,302 in English word frequency. Often confused with le and li.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lay |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /leɪ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #2,302 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lay is 3 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /leɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,302 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 21 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for lay in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "le", "li", "Lt", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English leyen, leggen, from Old English leċġan (“to lay”), from Proto-West Germanic *laggjan, from Proto-Germanic *lagjaną (“to lay”), causative form of Proto-Germanic *ligjaną (“to lie, recline”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to … 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 lay, spelled L-A-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position.
- 2To cause to subside or abate.
- 3To prepare (a plan, project etc.); to set out, establish (a law, principle).
- 4To install certain building materials, laying one thing on top of another.
- 5To produce and deposit (an egg or eggs).
- 6To bet (that something is or is not the case).
- 7To deposit (a stake) as a wager; to stake; to risk.
- 8To have sex with.
- 9To state; to allege.
- 10To point; to aim.
- 11To put the strands of (a rope, a cable, etc.) in their proper places and twist or unite them.
- 12To place and arrange (pages) for a form upon the imposing stone.
- 13To place (new type) properly in the cases.
- 14To apply; to put.
- 15To impose (a burden, punishment, command, tax, etc.).
- 16To impute; to charge; to allege.
- 17To present or offer.
- 18To produce and deposit an egg or eggs.
- 19To subside or abate.
- 20To take a position; to come or go.
- 21To lie: to rest in a horizontal position on a surface.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English leyen, leggen, from Old English leċġan (“to lay”), from Proto-West Germanic *laggjan, from Proto-Germanic *lagjaną (“to lay”), causative form of Proto-Germanic *ligjaną (“to lie, recline”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie, recline”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian lääse (“to lay; to lie”), West Frisian lizze (“to lay, to lie”), Cimbrian leng (“to lay”), Dutch leggen (“to lay”), German legen (“to lay”), Limburgish lègke (“to lay”), Luxembourgish leeën (“to lay”), Yiddish לייגן (leygn, “to lay”), Danish lægge (“to lay”), Faroese, Icelandic leggja (“to lay”), Norwegian Bokmål legge (“to lay”), Norwegian Nynorsk legga, legge, leggja, leggje (“to lay”), Swedish lägga (“to lay”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (lagjan, “to lay”), Old French laier, laiier, laire (“to leave”), Albanian lag (“troop, band, war encampment”).
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #2,302 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "lay"?
What does "lay" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "lay"?
How do you pronounce "lay"?
What is the origin of the word "lay"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter L in our English index: