purchase
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
8 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "purchase", 8-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 "purchase" 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 "purchase" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
purchase is aEnglishnoun. It means: The acquisition of title to, or property in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent. Pronounced /ˈpɝ.t͡ʃəs/. It ranks #2,011 in English word frequency. Often confused with purchased and purchaser.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | purchase |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɝ.t͡ʃəs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #2,011 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for purchase is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɝ.t͡ʃəs/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,011 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 12 documented wrong-spelling variants for purchase, with forms such as "ppurchase", "pruchase", and "pucrhase". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "purchased", "purchaser", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English purchasen, from Anglo-Norman purchacer (“seek to obtain”) from pur- (from Latin pro-) + chac(i)er (“to chase, pursue”). Compare Old French porchacier (“to follow, to chase”), which has given French pourchasser (“to chase without relent”). 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 purchase, spelled P-U-R-C-H-A-S-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The acquisition of title to, or property in, anything for a price; buying for money or its equivalent.
- 2That which is obtained for a price in money or its equivalent.
- 3That which is obtained, got or acquired, in any manner, honestly or dishonestly; property; possession; acquisition.
- 4The act or process of seeking and obtaining something (e.g. property, etc.)
- 5A price paid for a house or estate, etc. equal to the amount of the rent or income during the stated number of years.
- 6Any mechanical hold or advantage, applied to the raising or removing of heavy bodies, as by a lever, a tackle or capstan.
- 7The apparatus, tackle or device by which such mechanical advantage is gained and (in nautical terminology) the ratio of such a device, like a pulley, or block and tackle.
- 8The amount of hold one has from an individual foothold or ledge.
- 9Acquisition of lands or tenements by means other than descent or inheritance, namely, by one's own act or agreement.
Etymology
From Middle English purchasen, from Anglo-Norman purchacer (“seek to obtain”) from pur- (from Latin pro-) + chac(i)er (“to chase, pursue”). Compare Old French porchacier (“to follow, to chase”), which has given French pourchasser (“to chase without relent”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ppurchase,pruchase,pucrhase,purcahse,purcchase,purchaes,purchasse,purchhase,purchsae,purhcase,purrchase,uprchase
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for purchase
Misspelling Variants of "purchase"
Frequency rank: #2,011 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter P in our English index: