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mope

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

Letters

4 characters

Language

English

word origin

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "mope", 4-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 "mope" 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 "mope" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

mope is aEnglishverb. It means: To carry oneself in a depressed, lackadaisical manner; to give oneself up to low spirits; to pout, sulk. Pronounced /məʊp/.

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Key facts for mope
PropertyValue
Headwordmope
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/məʊp/
Letters4
Frequency rank#70,921
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for mope is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /məʊp/. Corpus data places it at rank #70,921 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No misspelling variants are generated for mope in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns.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: Late Middle English (as a noun meaning "simpleton, fool"), probably related to mop (“young of an animal, moppet”). Alternatively, of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish mopa (“to sulk”), Danish måbe, themselves borrowed from Low German mopen (“to make… 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 mope, spelled M-O-P-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    To carry oneself in a depressed, lackadaisical manner; to give oneself up to low spirits; to pout, sulk.
  2. 2
    To make spiritless and stupid.

Etymology

Late Middle English (as a noun meaning "simpleton, fool"), probably related to mop (“young of an animal, moppet”). Alternatively, of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish mopa (“to sulk”), Danish måbe, themselves borrowed from Low German mopen (“to make faces, gape”), of uncertain ultimate origin, but compare Proto-West Germanic *mauwu (“protruding lip, pout”). Compare also German muffen, French moue.

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #70,921 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mope"?
"mope" is spelled M-O-P-E. The IPA pronunciation is /məʊp/.
What does "mope" mean?
As a verb, "mope" means: To carry oneself in a depressed, lackadaisical manner; to give oneself up to low spirits; to pout, sulk.
How do you pronounce "mope"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mope" is /məʊp/. 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 "mope"?
Late Middle English (as a noun meaning "simpleton, fool"), probably related to mop (“young of an animal, moppet”). Alternatively, of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish mopa (“to sulk”), Danish måbe, themselves borrowed from Low German mopen... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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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

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.