put
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
3 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "put", 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 "put" 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 "put" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
put is aEnglishverb. It means: To physically place (something or someone somewhere). Pronounced /pʊt/. It ranks #209 in English word frequency. Often confused with PV and PW.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | put |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /pʊt/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #209 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for put is 3 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pʊt/. Corpus data places it at rank #209 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for put 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, "PV", "PW", "PX", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English putten, puten, poten, from Old English putian, *pūtian ("to push, put out"; attested by derivative putung (“pushing, impulse, instigation, urging”)) and potian (“to push, thrust, strike, butt, goad”), both from Proto-West Germanic *putōn… 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 put, spelled P-U-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To physically place (something or someone somewhere).
- 2To place in abstract; to attach or attribute; to assign.
- 3To bring or set (into a certain relation, state or condition).
- 4To express (something in a certain manner).
- 5To set before one for judgment, acceptance, or rejection; to bring to the attention.
- 6To set as a calculation or estimate.
- 7To steer; to direct one's course; to go.
- 8To sell (assets) under the terms of a put option.
- 9To throw with a pushing motion, especially in reference to the sport of shot put. (Do not confuse with putt.)
- 10To play a card or a hand in the game called "put".
- 11To lay down; to give up; to surrender.
- 12To incite; to entice; to urge; to constrain; to oblige.
- 13To convey coal in the mine, as for example from the working to the tramway.
Etymology
From Middle English putten, puten, poten, from Old English putian, *pūtian ("to push, put out"; attested by derivative putung (“pushing, impulse, instigation, urging”)) and potian (“to push, thrust, strike, butt, goad”), both from Proto-West Germanic *putōn, from Proto-Germanic *putōną (“to stick, stab”), which is of uncertain origin. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bud- (“to shoot, sprout”), which would make it cognate with Sanskrit बुन्द (bundá, “arrow”), Lithuanian budė, and budis (“mushroom, fungus”). Compare also related Old English pȳtan (“to push, poke, thrust, put out (the eyes)”). Cognate with Dutch poten (“to set, plant”), Low German paten (“to set, plant”), Danish putte (“to put”), Swedish putta, pötta, potta (“to strike, knock, push gently, shove, put away”), Norwegian putte (“to set, put”), Norwegian pota (“to poke”), Icelandic pota (“to poke”), Dutch peuteren (“to pick, poke around, dig, fiddle with”).
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #209 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter P in our English index: