orange
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 "orange", 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 "orange" 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 "orange" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
orange is aEnglishnoun. It means: An evergreen tree of the genus Citrus such as Citrus sinensis which yields oranges (the fruit). Pronounced /ˈɒɹ.ɪnd͡ʒ/. It ranks #2,400 in English word frequency. Often confused with Osage and oranges.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | orange |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɒɹ.ɪnd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #2,400 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for orange is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɒɹ.ɪnd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,400 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for orange, with forms such as "oarnge", "oragne", and "oraneg". 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, "Osage", "oranges", "Oran", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree ▲ Italian melaranciacalq. Old French Orengeinflu. ▲ Old Occitan auranjainflu. Old French pomme d'orenge Old French orenge Middle French orangebor. Middle English orenge English orange Inherited from Middle English orenge, orange, from Old Fre… 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 orange, spelled O-R-A-N-G-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1An evergreen tree of the genus Citrus such as Citrus sinensis which yields oranges (the fruit).
- 2Any round citrus fruit with a yellow-red colour when ripe and a sour-sweet taste; the fruit of the orange tree.
- 3Any round citrus fruit with a yellow-red colour when ripe and a sour-sweet taste; the fruit of the orange tree.
- 4The colour of a ripe fruit of an orange tree, midway between red and yellow.
- 5Various drinks
- 6Various drinks:
- 7Various drinks:
- 8Various drinks:
- 9An orange-coloured roundel.
Etymology
Etymology tree ▲ Italian melaranciacalq. Old French Orengeinflu. ▲ Old Occitan auranjainflu. Old French pomme d'orenge Old French orenge Middle French orangebor. Middle English orenge English orange Inherited from Middle English orenge, orange, from Old French pome orenge (“fruit orange”), influenced by the place name Orange (which is from Gaulish and unrelated to the word for the fruit and color) and by Old Occitan auranja and calqued from Old Italian melarancio, melarancia, compound of mela (“apple”) and un'arancia (“an orange”), from Arabic نَارَنْج (nāranj), from Early Classical Persian نَارَنْگْ (nārang), from Sanskrit नारङ्ग (nāraṅga, “orange tree”), ultimately from Dravidian. Compare Tamil நாரங்காய் (nāraṅkāy), compound of நாரம் (nāram, “water”) and காய் (kāy, “fruit”); also Telugu నారంగము, నారింజ (nāraṅgamu, nāriñja), Malayalam നാരങ്ങ (nāraṅṅa), Kannada ನಾರಂಗಿ (nāraṅgi)). Originally borrowed as the surname (derived from the place name) in the 13th century, before the sense of the fruit was imported in the late 14th century and the color in 1510. In the color sense, largely displaced ġeolurēad, whence yellow-red.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: oarnge,oragne,oraneg,orangge,orannge,ornage,orrange,roange
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for orange
Misspelling Variants of "orange"
Frequency rank: #2,400 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter O in our English index: