reward
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "reward", 6-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 "reward" 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 "reward" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
reward is aEnglishnoun. It means: Something of value given in return for an act. Pronounced /ɹɪˈwɔːd/. It ranks #4,116 in English word frequency. Often confused with rewind and rework.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | reward |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹɪˈwɔːd/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #4,116 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for reward is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɪˈwɔːd/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,116 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for reward, with forms such as "erward", "reawrd", and "rewadr". 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 16 confusable-pair relationships, "rewind", "rework", "rewarded", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English reward, rewarde, from Old French reward (“reward”) (compare Old French regard, whence modern French regard, and also English regard through Middle French), from rewarder (“to reward”) (compare Old French reguarder), from re- + warder (“t… 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 reward, spelled R-E-W-A-R-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Something of value given in return for an act.
- 2A prize promised for a certain deed or catch
- 3The result of an action, whether good or bad.
Etymology
From Middle English reward, rewarde, from Old French reward (“reward”) (compare Old French regard, whence modern French regard, and also English regard through Middle French), from rewarder (“to reward”) (compare Old French reguarder), from re- + warder (“to guard, keep”) (compare Old French guarder); the Anglo-Norman forms are derived from Old Northern French variants of Old French, ultimately of Germanic (Frankish) origin. Compare regard, warden, guard. See more below. Mostly displaced Old English mēd, whence Modern English meed. Displaced Old English lēan and edlēan.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: erward,reawrd,rewadr,rewardd,rewarrd,rewrad,rewward,rreward,rweard
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for reward
Misspelling Variants of "reward"
Frequency rank: #4,116 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: