matrix
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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6 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "matrix", 6-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 "matrix" 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 "matrix" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
matrix is aEnglishnoun. It means: The cavity or mold in which anything is formed. Pronounced /ˈmeɪ.tɹɪks/. It ranks #6,376 in English word frequency. Often confused with metric and matron.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | matrix |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmeɪ.tɹɪks/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #6,376 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for matrix is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmeɪ.tɹɪks/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,376 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 20 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for matrix, with forms such as "amtrix", "martix", and "matirx". 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 16 confusable-pair relationships, "metric", "matron", "Mattie", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English matris, matrice, matrix, from Old French matrice (“pregnant animal”), or from Latin mātrīx (“dam, womb”), both ultimately from māter (“mother”). Doublet of mother from Indo-European ancestor. Slang usage coined with the 1999 sci-fi actio… 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 matrix, spelled M-A-T-R-I-X, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The cavity or mold in which anything is formed.
- 2The womb.
- 3The metaphorical place where something is made, formed, or given birth.
- 4The material or tissue in which more specialized structures are embedded.
- 5An extracellular matrix, the material or tissue between the cells of animals or plants.
- 6Part of the mitochondrion.
- 7The medium in which bacteria are cultured.
- 8A table of data.
- 9A rectangular arrangement of numbers or terms having various uses such as transforming coordinates in geometry, solving systems of linear equations in linear algebra and representing graphs in graph theory.
- 10A two-dimensional array.
- 11Alternative letter-case form of Matrix; a controlled environment or situation in which people behave in ways that conform to pre-determined roles.
- 12A grid-like arrangement of electronic components, especially one intended for information coding, decoding or storage.
- 13A geological matrix.
- 14The sediment surrounding and including the artifacts, features, and other materials at a site.
- 15The environment from which a given sample is taken.
- 16In hot metal typesetting, a mold for casting a letter.
- 17In printmaking, the plate or block used, with ink, to hold the image that makes up the print.
- 18The five simple colours (black, white, blue, red, and yellow) from which all the others are formed.
- 19A binding agent of composite materials, e.g. resin in fibreglass.
- 20Matrix clause is a clause that has another (subordinate) clause embedded within it.
Etymology
From Middle English matris, matrice, matrix, from Old French matrice (“pregnant animal”), or from Latin mātrīx (“dam, womb”), both ultimately from māter (“mother”). Doublet of mother from Indo-European ancestor. Slang usage coined with the 1999 sci-fi action film The Matrix.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: amtrix,martix,matirx,matrixx,matrrix,matrxi,mattrix,mmatrix,mtarix
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for matrix
Misspelling Variants of "matrix"
Frequency rank: #6,376 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: