out
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
3 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "out", 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 "out" 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 "out" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
out is anEnglishadv. It means: Away from the inside or centre. Pronounced /aʊt/. It ranks #45 in English word frequency. Often confused with oz and ow.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | out |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adv |
| IPA | /aʊt/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #45 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for out is 3 letters long, classified as anadv, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /aʊt/. Corpus data places it at rank #45 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for out 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, "oz", "ow", "ox", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English out, oute, from a combination of Old English ūt (“out”, preposition & adverb), from Proto-West Germanic *ūt, from Proto-Germanic *ūt (“out”); and Old English ūte (“outside; without”, adverb), from Proto-Germanic *ūtai (“out; outside”); b… 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 out, spelled O-U-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Away from the inside or centre.
- 2Away from, or at a distance from, some point of reference or focus.
- 3Away from, or at a distance from, some point of reference or focus.
- 4Away from, or at a distance from, some point of reference or focus.
- 5Away, or at a distance, in time (relative to, and usually after, the present or a stated event) (often preceded by a stated time period and followed by "from")
- 6Outside; not indoors.
- 7Of the ball or other playing implement, so as to pass or be situated beyond the bounds of the playing area.
- 8Into a state of non-operation or non-existence.
- 9To the end; completely; so that nothing remains.
- 10To the end; completely; so that nothing remains.
- 11Used to intensify or emphasize.
- 12Into a state of existence or visibility.
- 13Into a state of existence or visibility.
- 14So as to be disqualified from playing further by some action of a member of the opposing team (such as being stumped in cricket or a forced out in baseball).
Etymology
From Middle English out, oute, from a combination of Old English ūt (“out”, preposition & adverb), from Proto-West Germanic *ūt, from Proto-Germanic *ūt (“out”); and Old English ūte (“outside; without”, adverb), from Proto-Germanic *ūtai (“out; outside”); both from Proto-Indo-European *úd (“upwards, away”). Cognates Cognate with Scots oot (“out”), Yola out, outh, udh, ut, uth (“out”), North Frisian üt, ütj (“out”), Saterland Frisian uut (“out of”), West Frisian út (“out”), Cimbrian aus, auz (“out, outwards”), Dutch uit (“out”), German, Luxembourgish aus (“out”), Yiddish אויס (oys, “over, finished”), Danish ud (“out; outside”), Icelandic út (“out”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish ut (“out”), Gothic 𐌿𐍄 (ut, “out of”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #45 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter O in our English index: