nigger
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "nigger", 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 "nigger" 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 "nigger" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
nigger is aEnglishnoun. It means: A black person; a person of black African descent. Pronounced /ˈnɪɡə(ɹ)/. Often confused with nugget and nighter.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nigger |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈnɪɡə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #18,375 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for nigger is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈnɪɡə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #18,375 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 14 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 nigger, with forms such as "ingger", "ngiger", and "nigegr". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "nugget", "nighter", "Nigel", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French nègre (“a black person”), from Spanish negro. Ultimately from Latin niger (“black”), thus a doublet of negro and noir. The expected Modern English pronunciation would be with /iː/; compare neger. The modern pronunciation with /ɪ/… 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 nigger, spelled N-I-G-G-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A black person; a person of black African descent.
- 2A black person; a person of black African descent.
- 3A member of any typically dark-skinned people (now especially in combinations like prairie nigger or sand nigger).
- 4A friend, particularly a fellow black person (often as an informal term of address).
- 5A person of any kind (particularly as a term of abuse).
- 6A member of a group that is oppressed or marginalized in the manner of black people.
- 7Any of various dark animals:
- 8Any of various dark animals:
- 9Any of various dark animals:
- 10Any of various dark animals:
- 11An impurity in the covering of an electrical conductor which serves to make a partial short circuit, and thus becomes sufficiently heated to burn and destroy the insulation.
- 12A strong iron-bound timber with sharp teeth or spikes protruding from its front face, forming part of the machinery of a sawmill, and used in canting logs, etc.
- 13A steam-capstan on some Mississippi river boats, used to haul the boat over bars and snags by a rope fastened to a tree on the bank.
- 14A black screen used in conjunction with the camera to block light or produce special lighting effects.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French nègre (“a black person”), from Spanish negro. Ultimately from Latin niger (“black”), thus a doublet of negro and noir. The expected Modern English pronunciation would be with /iː/; compare neger. The modern pronunciation with /ɪ/ may be due to influence from the Latin etymon (compare the older Southern US pronunciation of negro with /ɪ/), but compare the dialectal American pronunciations of eagle and eager as /ˈɪɡəl/ and /ˈɪɡɚ/. Compare Danish neger, Swedish neger, German Neger, Dutch neger. First use appears c. 1577, in the writings of Edward Hellowes (fl. 1574–1601).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ingger,ngiger,nigegr,niggerr,niggre,nnigger
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for nigger
Misspelling Variants of "nigger"
Frequency rank: #18,375 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter N in our English index: