man
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
3 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "man", 3-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 "man" 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 "man" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
man is aEnglishnoun. It means: An adult male human. Pronounced /ˈmæn/. It ranks #148 in English word frequency. Often confused with my and ME.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | man |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmæn/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #148 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for man is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmæn/. Corpus data places it at rank #148 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 22 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for man in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "my", "ME", "Mr", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English man, from Old English mann m (“human being, person, man”), from Proto-West Germanic *mann, from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“man”), from Proto-Indo-European *mon- (“human being, man”). Doublet of Manu. Cognates Cognate with Yola man (“man; hu… 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 man, spelled M-A-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1An adult male human.
- 2An adult male human.
- 3An adult male human.
- 4An adult male human.
- 5An adult male human.
- 6A human, a person regardless of gender or sex, usually an adult.
- 7A human, a person regardless of gender or sex, usually an adult.
- 8A member of the genus Homo, especially of the species Homo sapiens.
- 9A male person, usually an adult; a (generally adult male) sentient being, whether human, supernatural, elf, alien, etc.
- 10Manliness; the quality or state of being manly.
- 11A husband.
- 12A male lover; a boyfriend.
- 13Used as the last element of a compound.
- 14Used as the last element of a compound.
- 15A person, usually male, who can fulfill one's requirements with regard to a specified matter.
- 16A vassal; a subject.
- 17A piece or token used in board games such as backgammon.
- 18One of the player's chances to play, lost when the player's character dies or when certain mistakes are made.
- 19A term of familiar address often implying on the part of the speaker some degree of authority, impatience, or haste.
- 20A term of familiar address usually reserved for other adult males. It works both with ones whose name is known and ones whose name is unknown.
- 21A player on whom another is playing, with the intent of limiting their attacking impact.
- 22A soldier below the rank of a non-commissioned officer.
Etymology
From Middle English man, from Old English mann m (“human being, person, man”), from Proto-West Germanic *mann, from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“man”), from Proto-Indo-European *mon- (“human being, man”). Doublet of Manu. Cognates Cognate with Yola man (“man; husband”), North Frisian maan, man, moon, muon (“man; husband”), Saterland Frisian Mon (“man; husband”), West Frisian man (“man; husband”), Alemannic German ma, Maa, Mann, mo, mà, Mànn (“man; husband”), Bavarian Mo, mon, moon, Må, mònn (“man; husband”), Cimbrian man, mann, månn (“man; husband”), Dutch man (“man; husband”), German, German Low German, and Luxembourgish Mann (“man; husband”), Mòcheno mònn (“man”), Vilamovian maon, mon, mōn (“man; husband”), Yiddish מאַן (man, “man”), Danish mand (“man; husband”), Faroese and Icelandic maður (“male, man; husband”), Norn and Norwegian Bokmål mann (“man; husband”), Norwegian Nynorsk mann, mainnj (“man; husband”), Swedish man (“man; husband”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌰 (manna, “man; human”); also Latin humanus (“human”), Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian муж (muž, “husband; man”), Bulgarian мъж (mǎž, “man; husband”), Czech and Slovak muž (“man; husband”), Macedonian маж (maž, “man; husband”), Polish mąż (“man; husband”), Serbo-Croatian му̑ж, mȗž (“man; husband”), Slovene mož (“man; husband”), Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬥𐬎𐬱 (manuš, “human”), Sanskrit मनु (manu, “intelligent, thinking, wise”), मनुस् (manus, “man”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #148 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "man"?
What does "man" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "man"?
How do you pronounce "man"?
What is the origin of the word "man"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: