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movie

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

Letters

5 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "movie", 5-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 "movie" 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 "movie" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

movie is aEnglishnoun. It means: A recorded sequence of images displayed on a screen at a rate sufficiently fast to create the appearance of motion; a film. Pronounced /ˈmuːvi/. It ranks #715 in English word frequency. Often confused with moving and movies.

Key facts for movie
PropertyValue
Headwordmovie
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈmuːvi/
Letters5
Frequency rank#715
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for movie is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmuːvi/. Corpus data places it at rank #715 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for movie, with forms such as "mmovie", "moive", and "movei". 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, "moving", "movies", "moe", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From moving (picture) + -ie. Attested since at least 1912 (if not 1908), originally in American English. 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 movie, spelled M-O-V-I-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A recorded sequence of images displayed on a screen at a rate sufficiently fast to create the appearance of motion; a film.
  2. 2
    A cinema; a movie theatre.
  3. 3
    Any event, especially one that is unpleasant or tiresome.
  4. 4
    An extremely fun and exciting experience.

Etymology

From moving (picture) + -ie. Attested since at least 1912 (if not 1908), originally in American English.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: mmovie,moive,movei,movvie,mvoie,omvie

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for movie

Misspelling Variants of "movie"

mmovie6moive5movei5movvie6mvoie5omvie5
Misspelling Variants of "movie"

Frequency rank: #715 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "movie"?
"movie" is spelled M-O-V-I-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈmuːvi/.
What does "movie" mean?
As a noun, "movie" means: A recorded sequence of images displayed on a screen at a rate sufficiently fast to create the appearance of motion; a film.
What words are commonly confused with "movie"?
"movie" is commonly confused with "moving", "movies", "moe". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "movie"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "movie" is /ˈmuːvi/. 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 "movie"?
From moving (picture) + -ie. Attested since at least 1912 (if not 1908), originally in American English. 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.