pad
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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3 characters
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English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "pad", 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 "pad" 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 "pad" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
pad is aEnglishnoun. It means: A flattened mass of anything soft, to sit or lie on. Pronounced /pæd/. It ranks #7,039 in English word frequency. Often confused with PM and PC.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pad |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pæd/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #7,039 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pad is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pæd/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,039 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 26 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for pad 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, "PM", "PC", "PP", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 1554, "bundle of straw to lie on". Unknown, and unclear all senses have common etymology. For sense "ends of a digit", cf. Low German or West Flemish pad (“sole of the foot”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to pass”), which would make … 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 pad, spelled P-A-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A flattened mass of anything soft, to sit or lie on.
- 2A cushion used as a saddle without a tree or frame.
- 3A soft, or small, cushion.
- 4A soft area on the ends of a digit:
- 5A soft area on the ends of a digit:
- 6A soft area on the ends of a digit:
- 7A stuffed guard or protection, especially one worn on the legs of horses to prevent bruising.
- 8A soft bag or cushion to relieve pressure, support a part, etc.
- 9A menstrual pad; a mass of absorbent material used to absorb menstrual flow.
- 10A floating leaf of a water lily or similar plant.
- 11A soft cover for a batsman's leg that protects the player from damage when hit by the ball.
- 12A kind of cushion for writing upon, or for blotting, especially one formed of many flat sheets of writing paper; now especially such a block of paper sheets as used to write on.
- 13A panel or strip of material designed to be sensitive to pressure or touch.
- 14Ellipsis of keypad.
- 15Ellipsis of mouse pad.
- 16a tablet PC
- 17A flat surface or area from which a helicopter or other aircraft may land or be launched.
- 18An electrical extension cord with a multi-port socket on one end; a "trip cord".
- 19The effect produced by sustained lower reed notes in a musical piece, most common in blues music.
- 20A synthesizer instrument sound used for sustained background sounds.
- 21A bed.
- 22A small house, apartment, or mobile home occupied by a single person; such as a bachelor, playboy, etc.
- 23A prison cell.
- 24A random key (originally written on a disposable pad) of the same length as the plaintext.
- 25The amount by which a signal has been reduced.
- 26A piece of timber fixed on a beam to fit the curve of the deck.
Etymology
1554, "bundle of straw to lie on". Unknown, and unclear all senses have common etymology. For sense "ends of a digit", cf. Low German or West Flemish pad (“sole of the foot”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to pass”), which would make it related to both path and find.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #7,039 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter P in our English index: