manhattan
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Detailed reference entry for the English word "manhattan", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "manhattan" 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 "manhattan" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
The verdict
“Manhattan” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,519 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #5,519
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
Dominant Wiktionary sense: An indigenous people of North America who lived in present day New York State.
Compare similar words
See how Manhattan compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Manhattan |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /mænˈhætn̩/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #5,519 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Manhattan” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Manhattan is 9 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mænˈhætn̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,519 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for Manhattan, with forms such as "amnhattan", "mahnattan", and "manahttan". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the earlier form Manna-hata recorded by Dutch travelers and settlers, from its name in Unami, the local Algonquian language. The name generally understood to be a compound of Unami mënatay (“island”) or Munsee munahan (compare Abenaki manahan) with ano… 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 Manhattan, spelled M-A-N-H-A-T-T-A-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1An indigenous people of North America who lived in present day New York State.
- 2A borough of New York City, New York, United States, mainly on Manhattan Island; in full, Borough of Manhattan.
- 3An island of New York, United States; in full, Manhattan Island.
- 4A number of places in the United States:
- 5A number of places in the United States:
- 6A number of places in the United States:
- 7A number of places in the United States:
- 8A number of places in the United States:
- 9A number of places in the United States:
- 10A number of places in the United States:
- 11A number of places in the United States:
Etymology
From the earlier form Manna-hata recorded by Dutch travelers and settlers, from its name in Unami, the local Algonquian language. The name generally understood to be a compound of Unami mënatay (“island”) or Munsee munahan (compare Abenaki manahan) with another element. According to a report by John Heckewelder, the name is connected to a wooded area whose trees were suitable for making bows. Linguist Ives Goddard explains the early forms Manna-hatta(n) and Mannahachtink as spellings of Munsee manaháhtaan (“place for gathering the wood to make bows”) and its related locative form manaháhteenk. This interpretation breaks down the word as a compound of manah- (“gather”) + -aht (“bow”) + -aan (“place”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: amnhattan,mahnattan,manahttan,manhatan,manhatatn,manhattann,manhattna,manhhattan,manhtatan,mannhattan,mmanhattan,mnahattan
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Manhattan — measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Edit distance from "Manhattan"
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “Manhattan”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-N-H-A-T-T-A-N — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mænˈhætn̩/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: