pick
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "pick", 4-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 "pick" 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 "pick" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
pick is aEnglishnoun. It means: A tool used for digging; a pickaxe. Pronounced /pɪk/. It ranks #881 in English word frequency. Often confused with PK and pin.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pick |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɪk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #881 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pick is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #881 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 18 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for pick, with forms such as "ipck", "pcik", and "picck". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PK", "pin", "pit", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English piken, picken, pikken, from Old English *piccian, *pīcian (attested in pīcung (“a pricking”)), and pīcan, pȳcan (“to pick, prick, pluck”), both from Proto-West Germanic *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick, knock”… 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 pick, spelled P-I-C-K, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A tool used for digging; a pickaxe.
- 2An anchor.
- 3A pointed hammer used for dressing millstones.
- 4A tool for unlocking a lock without the original key; a lock pick, picklock.
- 5A comb with long widely spaced teeth, for use with tightly curled hair.
- 6A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.
- 7A pike or spike; the sharp point fixed in the center of a buckler.
- 8A choice; ability to choose.
- 9That which would be picked or chosen first; the best.
- 10Pasture; feed, for animals.
- 11A screen.
- 12An offensive tactic in which a player stands so as to block a defender from reaching a teammate.
- 13An interception.
- 14A good defensive play by an infielder.
- 15A pickoff.
- 16A particle of ink or paper embedded in the hollow of a letter, filling up its face, and causing a spot on a printed sheet.
- 17That which is picked in, as with a pointed pencil, to correct an unevenness in a picture.
- 18The blow that drives the shuttle, used in calculating the speed of a loom (in picks per minute); hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread.
Etymology
From Middle English piken, picken, pikken, from Old English *piccian, *pīcian (attested in pīcung (“a pricking”)), and pīcan, pȳcan (“to pick, prick, pluck”), both from Proto-West Germanic *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick, knock”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew-, *bu- (“to make a dull, hollow sound”). Doublet of pitch and peck. Cognate with Dutch pikken (“to pick”), German picken (“to pick, peck”), Old Norse pikka, pjakka (whence Icelandic pikka (“to pick, prick”), Swedish picka (“to pick, peck”)). Compare also German Low German puken (“to pick out, rip out, pull away, extract”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ipck,pcik,picck,pickk,pikc,ppick
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for pick
Misspelling Variants of "pick"
Frequency rank: #881 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter P in our English index: