# list

> English word · Noun · IPA /lɪst/ · frequency rank #531

## Definitions
1. A strip of fabric, especially from the edge of a piece of cloth.
2. Material used for cloth selvage.
3. A register or roll of paper consisting of a compilation or enumeration of a set of possible items; the compilation or enumeration itself.
4. The barriers or palisades used to fence off a space for jousting or tilting tournaments.
5. The scene of a military contest; the ground or field of combat; an enclosed space that serves as a battlefield; the site of a pitched battle.
6. A codified representation of a list used to store data or in processing; especially, in the Lisp programming language, a data structure consisting of a sequence of zero or more items.
7. A little square moulding; a fillet or listel.
8. A narrow strip of wood, especially sapwood, cut from the edge of a board or plank.
9. A piece of woollen cloth with which the yarns are grasped by a worker.
10. The first thin coating of tin; a wire-like rim of tin left on an edge of the plate after it is coated.
11. A stripe.
12. A boundary or limit; a border.

## Etymology
From Middle English lī̆st, lī̆ste (“band, stripe; hem, selvage; border, edge, rim; list, specification; barriers enclosing area for jousting, etc.”), from Old English līste (“hem, edge, strip”), or Old French liste, listre (“border; band; strip of paper; list”), or Medieval Latin lista, all from Proto-West Germanic *līstā, from Proto-Germanic *līstǭ (“band, strip; hem, selvage; border, edge”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“to trace, track”).
Cognates
* Saterland Frisian Lieste (“margin, strip, list”)
* Dutch lijst (“picture frame, list”)
* German Low German Liest (“edging, border”)
* German Leiste (“strip, rail, ledge; (heraldry) bar”)
* Swedish lista (“list”)
* Icelandic lista listi (“list”)
* Italian lista (“list; strip”)
* Portuguese lista (“list”)
* Spanish lista (“list, roll; stripe”)
* Galician lista (“band, strip; list”)
* Finnish lista (“(informal) list; batten”).

## Easily confused with
- **Lt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-lt)
- **Ls** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-ls)
- **lot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-lot)
- **los** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-los)
- **lit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-lit)
- **Liz** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-liz)
- **Liu** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-liu)
- **LSU** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-lsu)
- **Liv** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-liv)
- **LSD** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-lsd)
- **LST** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-lst)
- **LRT** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-lrt)
- **LSC** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-lsc)
- **live** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-live)
- **lost** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-lost)
- **lose** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-lose)
- **loss** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-loss)
- **Luis** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-luis)
- **lust** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-lust)
- **lush** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/list-vs-lush)

## Common misspellings (6)
`ilst`, `lisst`, `listt`, `lits`, `llist`, `lsit`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/list