probe
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "probe", 5-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 "probe" 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 "probe" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
probe is aEnglishnoun. It means: Any of various medical instruments used to explore wounds, organs, etc. Pronounced /pɹəʊb/. It ranks #7,266 in English word frequency. Often confused with pros and prom.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | probe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɹəʊb/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,266 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for probe is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɹəʊb/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,266 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for probe, with forms such as "porbe", "pprobe", and "prboe". 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, "pros", "prom", "prop", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: For verb: borrowed from Latin probare (“to test, examine, prove”), from probus (“good”). Doublet of prove. For noun: borrowed from Late Latin proba (“a proof”), from probare (“to test, examine, prove”); Doublet of proof. Compare Spanish tienta (“a surgeon's… 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 probe, spelled P-R-O-B-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Any of various medical instruments used to explore wounds, organs, etc.
- 2Any of various medical instruments used to explore wounds, organs, etc.
- 3Something which penetrates something else, as though to explore; something which obtains information.
- 4An act of probing; a prod, a poke.
- 5An investigation or inquiry.
- 6A tube attached to an aircraft which can be fitted into the drogue from a tanker aircraft to allow for aerial refuelling.
- 7A small device, especially an electrode, used to explore, investigate or measure something by penetrating or being placed in it.
- 8A small, usually uncrewed, spacecraft used to acquire information or measurements about its surroundings.
- 9A move with multiple possible answers, seeking to make the opponent choose and commit to a strategy.
- 10Any group of atoms or molecules radioactively labeled in order to study a given molecule or other structure
Etymology
For verb: borrowed from Latin probare (“to test, examine, prove”), from probus (“good”). Doublet of prove. For noun: borrowed from Late Latin proba (“a proof”), from probare (“to test, examine, prove”); Doublet of proof. Compare Spanish tienta (“a surgeon's probe”), from tentar (“try, test”); see tempt.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: porbe,pprobe,prboe,probbe,proeb,prrobe,rpobe
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for probe
Misspelling Variants of "probe"
Frequency rank: #7,266 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "probe"?
What does "probe" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "probe"?
How do you pronounce "probe"?
What is the origin of the word "probe"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter P in our English index: