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lemon

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

Letters

5 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "lemon", 5-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 "lemon" 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 "lemon" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

lemon is aEnglishnoun. It means: A yellowish citrus fruit. Pronounced /ˈlɛmən/. It ranks #6,066 in English word frequency. Often confused with leo and Len.

Key facts for lemon
PropertyValue
Headwordlemon
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈlɛmən/
Letters5
Frequency rank#6,066
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of lemon in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for lemon is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlɛmən/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,066 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for lemon, with forms such as "elmon", "lemmon", and "lemno". 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, "leo", "Len", "Lon", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Arabic ليمونbor. Old French lymonbor. Middle English lymon English lemon Inherited from Middle English lymon, from Old French lymon (“citrus”), from Arabic لَيْمُون (laymūn) or Persian لیمون (limon), from Persian لیمو (limu), from Sanskrit नि… 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 lemon, spelled L-E-M-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A yellowish citrus fruit.
  2. 2
    A semitropical evergreen tree, Citrus limon, that bears such fruits.
  3. 3
    A more or less bright shade of yellow associated with lemon fruits.
  4. 4
    Lemon juice.
  5. 5
    A lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris).
  6. 6
    A defective or inadequate item or individual.
  7. 7
    Favor.
  8. 8
    A piece of fanfiction involving explicit sex.
  9. 9
    The surface of revolution of a circular arc of angle less than 180° rotated about the straight line passing through the arc’s two endpoints.

Etymology

Etymology tree Arabic ليمونbor. Old French lymonbor. Middle English lymon English lemon Inherited from Middle English lymon, from Old French lymon (“citrus”), from Arabic لَيْمُون (laymūn) or Persian لیمون (limon), from Persian لیمو (limu), from Sanskrit निम्बू (nimbū, “lime”), ultimately from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *limaw or Munda. Likely a doublet of lime. The fandom sense is named after the erotic anime series Cream Lemon.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: elmon,lemmon,lemno,lemonn,leomn,llemon,lmeon

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for lemon

Misspelling Variants of "lemon"

elmon5lemmon6lemno5lemonn6leomn5llemon6lmeon5
Misspelling Variants of "lemon"

Frequency rank: #6,066 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "lemon"?
"lemon" is spelled L-E-M-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈlɛmən/.
What does "lemon" mean?
As a noun, "lemon" means: A yellowish citrus fruit.
What words are commonly confused with "lemon"?
"lemon" is commonly confused with "leo", "Len", "Lon". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "lemon"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "lemon" is /ˈlɛmən/. 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 "lemon"?
Etymology tree Arabic ليمونbor. Old French lymonbor. Middle English lymon English lemon Inherited from Middle English lymon, from Old French lymon (“citrus”), from Arabic لَيْمُون (laymūn) or Persian لیمون (limon), from Persian لیمو (limu), from S... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

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.