lockdown
lock·down/ˈlɑkˌdaʊn/noun
lockdown is spelled L-O-C-K-D-O-W-N: 8 letters and 2 syllables (lock·down). It appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, lockdown means “The confinement of people in their own rooms (e.g., in a school) or cells (in a prison), or to their own homes or areas (e.g., in the case of a city-…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of lockdown is lockdowns.
How many letters and syllables are in lockdown?
| Letters | 8: L-O-C-K-D-O-W-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: lock·down |
| In writing | 3.3 times per million words; the 14,509th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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).
How common is lockdown?
Lockdown appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th 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 lockdown?
- UK /ˈlɒkˌdaʊn/
- US /ˈlɑkˌdaʊn/
Lockdown has 2 syllables, split lock·down in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-lockdown.wav, En-us-lockdown.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with lockdown
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: lock-down (one word or two).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of lockdown
- lockdowns plural
- lock-down
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does lockdown mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The confinement of people in their own rooms (e.g., in a school) or cells (in a prison), or to their own homes or areas (e.g., in the case of a city- or nation-wide issue) as a security measure after or amid a disturbance or as a non-pharmaceutical intervention in a pandemic.
- 2
USA contrivance to fasten logs together in rafting.
The rafts were made up of strings of logs about seventeen feet wide, held together by poles across them. Each log was pinned to the poles by wooden pegs and lockdowns.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Lockdown in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense emergency confinement:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | confinement, enfermement, verrouillage |
| German | Lockdown, Ausgangssperre, Abriegelung |
| Portuguese | confinamento, bloqueio total |
| Spanish | encerramiento, enclaustramiento, cierre de emergencia |
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 lockdown come from?
Deverbal from lock down.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).