requite
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "requite", 7-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 "requite" 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 "requite" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
requite is aEnglishverb. It means: To repay (a debt owed); specifically, to recompense or reward someone for (a favour, a service rendered, etc.) Pronounced /ɹɪˈkwaɪt/.
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Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | requite |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɹɪˈkwaɪt/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for requite is 7 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɪˈkwaɪt/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for requite in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: The verb is derived from Middle English requiten (“to repay”), and then partly from both of the following: * From re- (prefix meaning ‘again; back, backward’) + quiten (“to pay, pay for; to repay; to acquit (someone of a charge), exonerate; to prove (onesel… 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 requite, spelled R-E-Q-U-I-T-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To repay (a debt owed); specifically, to recompense or reward someone for (a favour, a service rendered, etc.)
- 2To repay (someone) a debt owed; specifically, to recompense or reward (someone) for a favour, a service rendered, etc.
- 3To respond to or reciprocate (feelings, especially affection or love which has been shown).
- 4To do or give a thing in return for (something).
- 5To retaliate or seek revenge for (an insult, a wrong, etc.).; to avenge.
- 6To retaliate or seek revenge against (someone) for an insult, a wrong, etc.; also (reflexive, rare), to seek revenge for (oneself).
- 7To greet (someone) in return.
- 8To make up for (something); to compensate.
- 9To respond to (a question, a statement, etc.).
- 10To take the place of (someone or something); to replace.
- 11Of an action, a quality, etc.: to be a reward for (itself).
- 12To recompense, to repay.
- 13To retaliate, to seek revenge.
Etymology
The verb is derived from Middle English requiten (“to repay”), and then partly from both of the following: * From re- (prefix meaning ‘again; back, backward’) + quiten (“to pay, pay for; to repay; to acquit (someone of a charge), exonerate; to prove (oneself) innocent; to answer, reply; to atone for (a sin); to compensate, make amends; to depart, leave; to equal, match; to fulfil (an obligation); to give back, return; to give up, relinquish; to release, set free; to render (a service); to reward; to give retribution, take revenge”) (from Old French quitter (“to free, liberate”) (modern French quitter), from quitte (“free, liberated”) + -er (suffix forming verbs)). Quitte is derived from Latin quiētus (“at rest; quiet”), the perfect passive participle of quiēscō (“to repose, rest; to sleep; to be quiet or still”), from quiēs (“rest, repose; sleep; calm, peace, quiet”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest; peace, rest”)) + -scō (suffix forming verbs with the sense ‘to begin to do [something]’). * From Old French requiter, requitter (“to free or liberate again”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + quitter (see above). The noun is derived from the verb.
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: