major
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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5 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "major", 5-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 "major" 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 "major" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
major is anEnglishadj. It means: Greater in dignity, rank, importance, significance, or interest. Pronounced /ˈmeɪ.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/. It ranks #504 in English word frequency. Often confused with mar and mao.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | major |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ˈmeɪ.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #504 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for major is 5 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmeɪ.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #504 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for major, with forms such as "amjor", "majjor", and "majorr". 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, "mar", "mao", "MOR", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s Proto-Indo-European *-yōs Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂yōs Proto-Italic *magjōs Latin maiorder. Middle English major English major From Middle English major, from Latin maior, comparative of magnus (“great, large; nob… 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 major, spelled M-A-J-O-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Greater in dignity, rank, importance, significance, or interest.
- 2Greater in number, quantity, or extent.
- 3Notable or conspicuous in effect or scope.
- 4Prominent or significant in size, amount, or degree.
- 5Involving great risk, serious, life-threatening.
- 6Of full legal age, having attained majority.
- 7Of or relating to a subject of academic study chosen as a field of specialization.
- 8Having intervals of a semitone between the third and fourth, and seventh and eighth degrees. (of a scale)
- 9Equivalent to that between the tonic and another note of a major scale, and greater by a semitone than the corresponding minor interval. (of an interval)
- 10Equivalent to that between the tonic and another note of a major scale, and greater by a semitone than the corresponding minor interval. (of an interval)
- 11(of a key) Based on a major scale, tending to produce a bright or joyful effect.
- 12Bell changes rung on eight bells.
- 13Indicating the elder of two brothers (or the eldest of three), appended to a surname in public schools.
- 14Occurring as the predicate in the conclusion of a categorical syllogism. (of a term)
- 15Containing the major term in a categorical syllogism. (of a premise)
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s Proto-Indo-European *-yōs Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂yōs Proto-Italic *magjōs Latin maiorder. Middle English major English major From Middle English major, from Latin maior, comparative of magnus (“great, large; noble, important”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂yōs (“greater”), comparative of *meǵh₂- (“great”). Compare West Frisian majoar (“major”), Dutch majoor (“major”), French majeur. Doublet of mayor. Noun sense 1 is a shortening of sergeant major, perhaps after Spanish mayor in the same sense.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: amjor,majjor,majorr,majro,maojr,mjaor,mmajor
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for major
Misspelling Variants of "major"
Frequency rank: #504 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: