on-pain-of
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
10 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "on-pain-of", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "on-pain-of" 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 "on-pain-of" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
on pain of is aEnglishprep. It means: Used to warn of consequences if a specified act is done or not done: subject to the punishment of (some penalty); or (generally) subject to the circumstance of (some thing). Pronounced /ɒn ˈpeɪn əv/.
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Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | on pain of |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep |
| IPA | /ɒn ˈpeɪn əv/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for on pain of is 10 letters long, classified as aprep, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɒn ˈpeɪn əv/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Used to warn of consequences if a specified act is done or not done: subject to the punishment of (some penalty); or (generally) subject to the circumstance of (some thing).".
No misspelling variants are generated for on pain of in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From on + pain (“suffering inflicted as punishment or penalty”) + of; compare French sous peine de. 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 on pain of, spelled O-N- -P-A-I-N- -O-F, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Used to warn of consequences if a specified act is done or not done: subject to the punishment of (some penalty); or (generally) subject to the circumstance of (some thing).
Etymology
From on + pain (“suffering inflicted as punishment or penalty”) + of; compare French sous peine de.
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter O in our English index: