residue
re·si·due/ˈɹɛzɪdjuː/noun
residue is spelled R-E-S-I-D-U-E: 7 letters and 3 syllables (re·si·due). It appears 3.4 times per million words in written English, the 14,307th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, residue means “That which persists or remains following the removal or elimination of other elements” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of residue is residues.
How many letters and syllables are in residue?
| Letters | 7: R-E-S-I-D-U-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: re·si·due |
| In writing | 3.4 times per million words; the 14,307th 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 residue?
Residue appears 3.4 times per million words in written English, the 14,307th 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 residue?
- /ˈɹɛzɪdjuː/
- [ˈɹɛzɪdjʊu̯]
- /ˈɹɛzɪd͡ʒuː/
Residue has 3 syllables, split re·si·due in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-residue.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of residue
- residues plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does residue mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
That which persists or remains following the removal or elimination of other elements.
- 2
The substance that remains after evaporation, distillation, filtration or any similar process.
- 3
A molecule that is released from a polymer after bonds between neighbouring monomers are broken, such as an amino acid in a polypeptide chain.
- 4
Whatever property or effects are left in an estate after payment of all debts, other charges and deduction of what is specifically bequeathed by the testator.
- 5
A representative element of an equivalence class modulo some base, conventionally in the half-open interval from zero to the base; the nonnegative remainder after dividing a number by a base.
- 6
A form of complex number, proportional to the contour integral of a meromorphic function along a path enclosing one of its singularities.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Residue in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Überrest , Rückstand , Nachlass , Residuum |
| Portuguese | resíduo |
| Spanish | residuo |
| French | résidu |
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 residue come from?
From Middle English residue, from Old French residu, from Latin residuum, neuter of residuus (“remaining”), from resideō (“to remain behind”). Doublet of residuum.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).