reach
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "reach", 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 "reach" 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 "reach" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
reach is aEnglishverb. It means: To extend, stretch, or thrust out (for example a limb or object held in the hand). Pronounced /ɹiːt͡ʃ/. It ranks #1,233 in English word frequency. Often confused with rec and real.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | reach |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɹiːt͡ʃ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,233 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for reach is 5 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹiːt͡ʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,233 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 17 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 reach, with forms such as "erach", "raech", and "reacch". 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, "rec", "real", "read", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English rechen, from Old English rǣċan (“to reach”), from Proto-West Germanic *raikijan, from Proto-Germanic *raikijaną, from the Proto-Indo-European *Hreyǵ- (“to bind, reach”). 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 reach, spelled R-E-A-C-H, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To extend, stretch, or thrust out (for example a limb or object held in the hand).
- 2To give to someone by stretching out a limb, especially the hand; to give with the hand; to pass to another person; to hand over.
- 3To stretch out the hand.
- 4To attain or obtain by stretching forth the hand; to extend some part of the body, or something held, so as to touch, strike, grasp, etc.
- 5To strike or touch.
- 6To extend an action, effort, or influence to; to penetrate to; to pierce, or cut.
- 7To extend to; to stretch out as far as; to touch by virtue of extent.
- 8To arrive at (a place) by effort of any kind.
- 9To make contact with.
- 10To connect with (someone) on an emotional level, making them receptive of (one); to get through to (someone).
- 11To arrive at a particular destination.
- 12To continue living until or up to (a certain age).
- 13To understand; to comprehend.
- 14To strain after something; to make (sometimes futile or pretentious) efforts.
- 15To extend in dimension, time etc.; to stretch out continuously (past, beyond, above, from etc. something).
- 16To sail on the wind, as from one point of tacking to another, or with the wind nearly abeam.
- 17To arrive at a particular destination, especially to join someone; to meet up.
Etymology
From Middle English rechen, from Old English rǣċan (“to reach”), from Proto-West Germanic *raikijan, from Proto-Germanic *raikijaną, from the Proto-Indo-European *Hreyǵ- (“to bind, reach”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: erach,raech,reacch,reachh,reahc,recah,rreach
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for reach
Misspelling Variants of "reach"
Frequency rank: #1,233 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: