lowercase
/ˈloʊ.ɚˌkeɪs/noun, adjective, verb
lowercase is spelled L-O-W-E-R-C-A-S-E: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,998th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “lower-case vs lowercase” about 10 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, lowercase means “Alternative form of lower case” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in lowercase?
| Letters | 9: L-O-W-E-R-C-A-S-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 36,998th 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 lowercase?
Lowercase appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,998th 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 lowercase?
- US /ˈloʊ.ɚˌkeɪs/
- UK /ˌləʊ.ə(ɹ)ˈkeɪs/
- UK /ˈləʊ.ə(ɹ)ˌkeɪs/
Lowercase has 3 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Ookap-lowercase.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-lowercase.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with lowercase
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: lower-case (one word or two).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of lowercase
- lower case
- lower-case
- lowercases present, singular, he/she/it
- lowercasing participle, present
- lowercased participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does lowercase mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Alternative form of lower case.
adjective
- 1
In lower case.
verb
- 1
To convert (text) to lower case.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Lowercase in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | minuscule , minusculiser |
| German | kleingeschrieben, klein |
| Portuguese | minúsculo |
| Spanish | de caja baja |
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 lowercase come from?
From the noun phrase lower case, which itself consists of an adjective modifying a noun; when used as a noun adjunct then, to render its syntactical function clearer and simpler, it is written as a single word or with a hyphen as a sort of chunking.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).