move
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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4 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "move", 4-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 "move" 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 "move" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
move is aEnglishverb. It means: To change place or posture; to go, in any manner, from one place or position to another. Pronounced /muːv/. It ranks #447 in English word frequency. Often confused with MV and MVP.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | move |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /muːv/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #447 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for move is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /muːv/. Corpus data places it at rank #447 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 16 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for move, with forms such as "mmove", "moev", and "movve". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "MV", "MVP", "MTV", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English moven, moeven, meven, borrowed from Old Northern French mover, moveir and Old French mouver, moveir (“to move”) (compare modern French mouvoir from Old French movoir), from Latin movēre (“move; change, exchange, go in or out, quit”), fro… 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 move, spelled M-O-V-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To change place or posture; to go, in any manner, from one place or position to another.
- 2To act; to take action; to begin to act
- 3To change residence, for example from one house, town, or state, to another; to go and live at another place; similarly to change the location of another establishment such as a business. See also move out and move in.
- 4To transport (an item) as part of changing residences.
- 5To cause to change place or posture in any manner; to set in motion; to carry, convey, draw, or push from one place to another
- 6To transfer (a piece) from one space or position on the board to another.
- 7To excite to action by the presentation of motives; to rouse by representation, persuasion, or appeal; to influence.
- 8To arouse the feelings or passions of; especially, to excite to tenderness or compassion, to excite (for example, an emotion).
- 9To propose; to recommend; specifically, to propose formally for consideration and determination, in a deliberative assembly; to submit
- 10To mention; to raise (a question); to suggest (a course of action); to lodge (a complaint).
- 11To incite, urge (someone to do something); to solicit (someone for or of an issue); to make a proposal to.
- 12To apply to, as for aid.
- 13To request an action from the court.
- 14To bow or salute upon meeting.
- 15To sell or market (especially physical inventory or illicit drugs).
- 16To transfer the value of one object in memory to another efficiently (i.e., without copying it in entirety).
Etymology
From Middle English moven, moeven, meven, borrowed from Old Northern French mover, moveir and Old French mouver, moveir (“to move”) (compare modern French mouvoir from Old French movoir), from Latin movēre (“move; change, exchange, go in or out, quit”), from Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁- (“to move, drive”). Cognate with Lithuanian mauti (“to push on, rush”), Sanskrit मीवति (mī́vati, “pushes, presses, moves”), Middle Dutch mouwe (“sleeve”). Largely displaced native English stir, from Middle English stiren, sturien, from Old English styrian.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: mmove,moev,movve,mvoe,omve
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for move
Misspelling Variants of "move"
Frequency rank: #447 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter M in our English index: