lay down
Detailed reference entry for the English word "lay-down", 8-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "lay-down" 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-down" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
The verdict
“lay down” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To give up, surrender, or yield (e.g. a weapon), usually by placing it on the ground.
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See how lay down compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lay down |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lay down” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lay down is 8 letters long, classified as a verb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for lay down in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. 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 leyen doun, leien doun (“to lay down”), equivalent to lay + down. 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 down, spelled L-A-Y- -D-O-W-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To give up, surrender, or yield (e.g. a weapon), usually by placing it on the ground.
- 2To place on the ground, e.g. a railway on a trackbed.
- 3To intentionally take a fall while riding a motorcycle, in order to prevent a more serious collision.
- 4To specify, institute, enact, assert firmly, state authoritatively, establish or formulate (rules or policies).
- 5To stock, store (e.g. wine) for the future. See also lay by.
- 6To kill (someone).
- 7To euthanize an animal.
- 8To sacrifice, especially in the phrase "to lay down one's life."
- 9To lie down.
- 10To draw the lines of a ship's hull at full size, before starting a build.
- 11To place a sheet in a printing press for printing.
Etymology
From Middle English leyen doun, leien doun (“to lay down”), equivalent to lay + down.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “lay down, English word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/en/word/lay-down
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Using “lay down”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-A-Y- -D-O-W-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter L in our English index: