liquidate
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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9 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "liquidate", 9-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 "liquidate" 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 "liquidate" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
liquidate is aEnglishverb. It means: Synonym of liquefy (“to make (something) into a liquid”); to liquidize. Pronounced /ˈlɪkwɪdeɪt/. Often confused with liquidity.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | liquidate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈlɪkwɪdeɪt/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #37,068 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for liquidate is 9 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlɪkwɪdeɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #37,068 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 12 documented wrong-spelling variants for liquidate, with forms such as "ilquidate", "liqiudate", and "liqquidate". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "liquidity", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Late Latin liquidātus (“liquid; clear”, adjective) + English -ate (suffix forming verbs, and forming adjectives with the sense ‘characterized by [the specified things]’). Liquidātus is the perfect passive participle of liquidō (“to tu… 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 liquidate, spelled L-I-Q-U-I-D-A-T-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Synonym of liquefy (“to make (something) into a liquid”); to liquidize.
- 2To make (a sound) less harsh.
- 3To use up (money or other assets) wastefully; to dissipate, to squander, to waste.
- 4To kill (someone), usually violently, and especially for some ideological or political aim; to assassinate, to murder; also, to abolish or eliminate (something); to do away with, to put an end to.
- 5To convert (assets) into cash; to encash, to realize, to redeem.
- 6To settle (a debt) by paying the outstanding amount; to pay off.
- 7To settle the financial affairs of (a corporation, partnership, or other business) with the aim of ceasing operations, by determining liabilities, using assets to pay debts, and apportioning the remaining assets if any; to wind up.
- 8To make (something) clear and intelligible.
- 9To make (something) clear and intelligible.
- 10To make (something) clear and intelligible.
- 11Of a corporation, partnership, or other business: to settle financial affairs with the aim of ceasing operations; to go into liquidation, to wind up.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Late Latin liquidātus (“liquid; clear”, adjective) + English -ate (suffix forming verbs, and forming adjectives with the sense ‘characterized by [the specified things]’). Liquidātus is the perfect passive participle of liquidō (“to turn into a liquid, melt; to make clear”), from Latin liquidus (“fluid, liquid; clear, transparent”) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs); while liquidus is from liqueō (“to be fluid or liquid; to be clear or transparent”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wleykʷ- (“to make wet; moist”)) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’ forming adjectives). By surface analysis, liquid (adjective) + -ate. Verb sense 1.2.3 (“to kill; to abolish or eliminate”) is a semantic loan from Russian ликвиди́ровать (likvidírovatʹ); while verb sense 1.2.4 and verb sense 2 (business-related senses) were influenced by French liquider and Italian liquidare, all ultimately from Latin liquidus (see above).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ilquidate,liqiudate,liqquidate,liqudiate,liquiadte,liquidaet,liquidatte,liquiddate,liquidtae,liuqidate,lliquidate,lqiuidate
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for liquidate
Misspelling Variants of "liquidate"
Frequency rank: #37,068 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter L in our English index: