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member

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

6 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "member", 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 "member" 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 "member" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

member is aEnglishnoun. It means: One who belongs to a group. Pronounced /ˈmɛmbə/. It ranks #677 in English word frequency. Often confused with meme and meter.

Key facts for member
PropertyValue
Headwordmember
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈmɛmbə/
Letters6
Frequency rank#677
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs14
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of member in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for member is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɛmbə/. Corpus data places it at rank #677 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 11 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 member, with forms such as "emmber", "mebmer", and "membber". 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 14 confusable-pair relationships, "meme", "meter", "Meyer", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English membre, from Old French membre, from Latin membrum (“limb, body part”), from Proto-Italic *memzrom, from Proto-Indo-European *mḗms, *mēms-rom (“flesh”). Akin to Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌼𐌶 (mimz, “meat, flesh”), Crimean Gothic menus. Coexists with n… 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 member, spelled M-E-M-B-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    One who belongs to a group.
  2. 2
    A part of a whole.
  3. 3
    Part of an animal capable of performing a distinct office; an organ; a limb.
  4. 4
    The penis.
  5. 5
    One of the propositions making up a syllogism.
  6. 6
    An element of a set.
  7. 7
    the judge or adjudicator in a consumer court.
  8. 8
    A part of a discourse or of a period, sentence, or verse; a clause.
  9. 9
    Either of the two parts of an algebraic equation, connected by the equality sign.
  10. 10
    A file stored within an archive file.
  11. 11
    A function or piece of data associated with each separate instance of a class.

Etymology

From Middle English membre, from Old French membre, from Latin membrum (“limb, body part”), from Proto-Italic *memzrom, from Proto-Indo-European *mḗms, *mēms-rom (“flesh”). Akin to Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌼𐌶 (mimz, “meat, flesh”), Crimean Gothic menus. Coexists with native limb, from Old English lim (“limb, joint, main branch”). Mostly displaced lith (“limb, joint, member”), from Old English liþ (“limb, member, join, tip”), which still survives in British dialect.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: emmber,mebmer,membber,memberr,membre,memebr,memmber,mmeber,mmember

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for member

Misspelling Variants of "member"

emmber6mebmer6membber7memberr7membre6memebr6memmber7mmeber6
Misspelling Variants of "member"

Frequency rank: #677 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "member"?
"member" is spelled M-E-M-B-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈmɛmbə/.
What does "member" mean?
As a noun, "member" means: One who belongs to a group.
What words are commonly confused with "member"?
"member" is commonly confused with "meme", "meter", "Meyer". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "member"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "member" is /ˈmɛmbə/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "member"?
From Middle English membre, from Old French membre, from Latin membrum (“limb, body part”), from Proto-Italic *memzrom, from Proto-Indo-European *mḗms, *mēms-rom (“flesh”). Akin to Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌼𐌶 (mimz, “meat, flesh”), Crimean Gothic menus. Coexi... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.