lord
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "lord", 4-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 "lord" 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 "lord" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
lord is aEnglishnoun. It means: The master of the servants of a household; (historical) the master of a feudal manor Pronounced /lɔːd/. It ranks #832 in English word frequency. Often confused with LR and lot.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lord |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /lɔːd/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #832 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lord is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /lɔːd/. Corpus data places it at rank #832 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for lord, with forms such as "llord", "lodr", and "lordd". 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, "LR", "lot", "low", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English lord and lorde (attested from the 15th century), from earlier (14th century) lourde and other variants which dropped the intervocalic consonant of earlier lowerd, louerd, loverd, laford, and lhoaverd; from Old English hlāford < hlāfweard… 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 lord, spelled L-O-R-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The master of the servants of a household; (historical) the master of a feudal manor
- 2The master of the servants of a household; (historical) the master of a feudal manor
- 3The master of the servants of a household; (historical) the master of a feudal manor
- 4One possessing similar mastery over others; (historical) any feudal superior generally; any nobleman or aristocrat; any chief, prince, or sovereign ruler; in Scotland, a male member of the lowest rank of nobility (the equivalent rank in England is baron)
- 5One possessing similar mastery over others; (historical) any feudal superior generally; any nobleman or aristocrat; any chief, prince, or sovereign ruler; in Scotland, a male member of the lowest rank of nobility (the equivalent rank in England is baron)
- 6One possessing similar mastery over others; (historical) any feudal superior generally; any nobleman or aristocrat; any chief, prince, or sovereign ruler; in Scotland, a male member of the lowest rank of nobility (the equivalent rank in England is baron)
- 7One possessing similar mastery over others; (historical) any feudal superior generally; any nobleman or aristocrat; any chief, prince, or sovereign ruler; in Scotland, a male member of the lowest rank of nobility (the equivalent rank in England is baron)
- 8One possessing similar mastery in figurative senses (esp. as lord of ~)
- 9One possessing similar mastery in figurative senses (esp. as lord of ~)
- 10The heavenly body considered to possess a dominant influence over an event, time, etc.
- 11A hunchback.
- 12Sixpence.
Etymology
From Middle English lord and lorde (attested from the 15th century), from earlier (14th century) lourde and other variants which dropped the intervocalic consonant of earlier lowerd, louerd, loverd, laford, and lhoaverd; from Old English hlāford < hlāfweard, a compound of hlāf (“bread”) + weard (“guardian”); see loaf and ward. The term was already being applied broadly prior to the literary development of Old English and was influenced by its common use to translate Latin dominus. Compare Scots laird (“lord”), preserving a separate vowel development (from northern/Scottish Middle English lard, laverd), the Old English compound hlāf-ǣta (“servant”, literally “bread-eater”), and modern English lady, from Old English hlǣfdīġe (“bread-kneader”). The Middle English word laford was borrowed by Icelandic, where it survives as lávarður. Doublet of hlaford and laird.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: llord,lodr,lordd,lorrd,lrod,olrd
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for lord
Misspelling Variants of "lord"
Frequency rank: #832 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter L in our English index: