prototype
pro·to·type/ˈpɹoʊtəˌtaɪp/noun, verb
prototype is spelled P-R-O-T-O-T-Y-P-E: 9 letters and 3 syllables (pro·to·type). It appears 6.8 times per million words in written English, the 9,165th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, prototype means “An original form or object which is a basis for other forms or objects (particularly manufactured items), or for its generalizations and models” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of prototype is prototypes.
How many letters and syllables are in prototype?
| Letters | 9: P-R-O-T-O-T-Y-P-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: pro·to·type |
| In writing | 6.8 times per million words; the 9,165th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is prototype?
Prototype appears 6.8 times per million words in written English, the 9,165th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce prototype?
- UK /ˈpɹəʊtətaɪp/
- US /ˈpɹoʊtəˌtaɪp/
- US [ˈpɹoʊɾəˌtaɪp]
Prototype has 3 syllables, split pro·to·type in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-prototype.ogg, En-au-prototype.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of prototype
- prototypes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- prototyping participle, present
- prototyped participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does prototype mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An original form or object which is a basis for other forms or objects (particularly manufactured items), or for its generalizations and models.
Near-synonym: archetype (sometimes synonymous)
- 2
An early sample or model built to test a concept or process.
The prototype had loose wires and rough edges, but it worked.
- 3
A declaration of a function that specifies the name, return type, and parameters, but none of the body or actual code.
- 4
An instance of a category or a concept that combines its most representative attributes.
A robin is a prototype of a bird; a penguin is not.
- 5
A type of race car, a racing sports car not based on a production car. A 4-wheeled cockpit-seating car built especially for racing on sports car circuits, that does not use the silhouette related to a consumer road car.
verb
- 1
To create a prototype of.
- 2
rareTo imitate or emulate.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Prototype in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does prototype come from?
From French prototype or Late Latin prototypon, from Ancient Greek πρωτότυπος (prōtótupos, “original; prototype”), from πρωτο- (prōto-, “first”) (from πρῶτος (prôtos, “first; earliest”)) + τῠ́πος (tŭ́pos, “blow, pressing; sort, type”) (from τύπτω (túptō, “to beat, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp- (“to push; to stick”)). The word is analysable as proto- + -type.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).