learn
/lɝn/verb, noun
learn is spelled L-E-A-R-N. The wrong spelling people search most is leanr: about 120 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 51 of all searches for the word. Learn is a verb meaning “To acquire, or attempt to acquire knowledge or an ability to do something”.
How many letters and syllables are in learn?
| Letters | 5: L-E-A-R-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 148 times per million words; the 697th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, leanr, about 120 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell learn?
Learn is spelled L-E-A-R-N. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 29 of the searches for learn in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is learn?
Learn appears 148 times per million words in written English, the 697th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce learn?
- UK /lɜːn/
- US /lɝn/
- /lɑː(ɹ)n/
Learn has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-to_learn.ogg, En-us-learn.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with learn
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: learned.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with learn?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as learn from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹn/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: renal, laner.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of learn
- learns present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- learning participle, present
- learned participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
- learnt participle, past
- larn
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does learn mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To acquire, or attempt to acquire knowledge or an ability to do something.
It's time Dad learned (how) to change the oil in the car.
- 2
To attend a course or other educational activity.
- 3
To gain knowledge from a bad experience so as to improve.
learn from one's mistakes
- 4
To study.
I learn medicine.
- 5
To come to know; to become informed of; to find out.
He just learned that he will be sacked.
- 6
To teach.
Give him a clip round the ear. That'll learn him!
noun
- 1
The act of learning something.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Learn in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | apprendre, étudier , faire des études |
| German | lernen , studieren , erfahren |
| Portuguese | aprender , estudar |
| Spanish | aprender, escarmentar , estudiar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does learn come from?
From Middle English lernen (“to learn", also, "to teach"”), from Old English leornian (“to learn", rarely also, "to teach”), from Proto-West Germanic *liʀnōn, from Proto-Germanic *lizaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(le-)lóys-e, stative from the root *leys- (“track, furrow, trace, trail”). The spelling with ⟨ea⟩ is of Early Modern English origin and reflects a lengthening of /ɛ~e/ to /eː/ before /rn/ in Late Old English or Early Middle English, then later lowering to /ɛː/; the modern pronunciation reflects still later reshortening.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).