nod
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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3 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "nod", 3-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 "nod" 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 "nod" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
nod is aEnglishverb. It means: To incline the head up and down, as to indicate agreement. Pronounced /nɒd/. Often confused with NZ and NT.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nod |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /nɒd/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #10,582 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for nod is 3 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /nɒd/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,582 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for nod in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "NZ", "NT", "NP", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English nodden, probably from an unrecorded Old English *hnodian (“to nod, shake the head”), from Proto-West Germanic *hnodōn, from Proto-Germanic *hnudōną (“to beat, rivet, pound, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *kendʰ-, from *ken- (“to scratc… 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 nod, spelled N-O-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To incline the head up and down, as to indicate agreement.
- 2To briefly incline the head downwards as a cursory greeting.
- 3To sway, move up and down.
- 4To gradually fall asleep.
- 5To signify by a nod.
- 6To make a mistake by being temporarily inattentive or tired
- 7To head; to strike the ball with one's head.
- 8To allude to something.
- 9To fall asleep while under the influence of opiates.
Etymology
From Middle English nodden, probably from an unrecorded Old English *hnodian (“to nod, shake the head”), from Proto-West Germanic *hnodōn, from Proto-Germanic *hnudōną (“to beat, rivet, pound, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *kendʰ-, from *ken- (“to scratch, scrape, rub”). Compare Old High German hnotōn (“to shake”), hnutten (“to shake, rattle, vibrate”) (> modern dialectal German notteln, nütteln (“to rock, move back and forth”)), Faroese njóða (“to clench a nail”), Icelandic hnjóða (“to rivet, clinch”), Faroese noða (“to double by bending”), Icelandic hnoða (“to clinch, rivet”).
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #10,582 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter N in our English index: