neck
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "neck", 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 "neck" 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 "neck" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
neck is aEnglishnoun. It means: The part of the body connecting the head and the trunk found in humans and some animals. Pronounced /nɛk/. It ranks #2,358 in English word frequency. Often confused with new and net.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | neck |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /nɛk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #2,358 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for neck is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /nɛk/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,358 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 16 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 neck, with forms such as "enck", "ncek", and "necck". 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, "new", "net", "NYC", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English nekke, nakke, from Old English hnecca, *hnæcca (“neck, nape”), from Proto-Germanic *hnakkô (“nape, neck”), from Proto-Indo-European *knog-, *kneg- (“back of the head, nape, neck”). Cognate with Scots nek (“neck”), North Frisian neek, nee… 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 neck, spelled N-E-C-K, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The part of the body connecting the head and the trunk found in humans and some animals.
- 2The corresponding part in some other anatomical contexts.
- 3The part of a shirt, dress etc., which fits a person's neck.
- 4The tapered part of a bottle toward the opening.
- 5The slender tubelike extension atop an archegonium, through which the sperm swim to reach the egg.
- 6The extension of any stringed instrument on which a fingerboard is mounted
- 7A long narrow tract of land projecting from the main body, or a narrow tract connecting two larger tracts.
- 8A reduction in size near the end of an object, formed by a groove around it.
- 9The constriction between the root and crown of a tooth.
- 10The gorgerin of a capital.
- 11A volcanic plug, solidified lava filling the vent of an extinct volcano.
- 12The small part of a gun between the chase and the swell of the muzzle.
- 13A person's life.
- 14A falsehood; a lie.
- 15Fellatio
- 16A bundle of wheat used in certain English harvest ceremonies.
Etymology
From Middle English nekke, nakke, from Old English hnecca, *hnæcca (“neck, nape”), from Proto-Germanic *hnakkô (“nape, neck”), from Proto-Indo-European *knog-, *kneg- (“back of the head, nape, neck”). Cognate with Scots nek (“neck”), North Frisian neek, neeke, Nak (“neck”), Saterland Frisian Näkke (“neck”), West Frisian nekke (“neck”), Dutch nek (“neck”), German Low German Nack (“neck”), German Nacken (“nape of the neck”), Danish nakke (“neck”), Swedish nacke (“nape of the neck”), Icelandic hnakki (“neck”), Tocharian A kñuk (“neck, nape”). Possibly a mutated variant of *kneug/k (compare Old English hnocc (“hook, penis”), Welsh cnwch (“joint, knob”), Latvian knaūķis (“dwarf”). Doublet of nek. More at nook. Displaced halse (“neck, throat”) and swire (“neck”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: enck,ncek,necck,neckk,nekc,nneck
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for neck
Misspelling Variants of "neck"
Frequency rank: #2,358 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter N in our English index: