ring
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "ring", 4-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 "ring" 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 "ring" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
ring is aEnglishnoun. It means: A solid object in the shape of a circle. Pronounced /ɹɪŋ/. It ranks #1,644 in English word frequency. Often confused with RN and run.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ring |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,644 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ring is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,644 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 25 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for ring, with forms such as "irng", "rign", and "ringg". 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, "RN", "run", "Rio", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ryng, from Old English hring (“ring, circle”), from Proto-West Germanic *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krengʰ-, extended nasalized form of *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Doublet of rank and rink,… 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 ring, spelled R-I-N-G, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A solid object in the shape of a circle.
- 2A solid object in the shape of a circle.
- 3A solid object in the shape of a circle.
- 4A solid object in the shape of a circle.
- 5A solid object in the shape of a circle.
- 6A solid object in the shape of a circle.
- 7A solid object in the shape of a circle.
- 8A solid object in the shape of a circle.
- 9A solid object in the shape of a circle.
- 10A group of objects arranged in a circle.
- 11A group of objects arranged in a circle.
- 12A group of objects arranged in a circle.
- 13A long stripe of contrastive material, colour, etc, that encircles something.
- 14Ellipsis of webring.
- 15A place where some sports or exhibitions take place; notably a circular or comparable arena, such as a boxing ring or a circus ring; hence the field of a political contest.
- 16A place where some sports or exhibitions take place; notably a circular or comparable arena, such as a boxing ring or a circus ring; hence the field of a political contest.
- 17An exclusive group of people, usually involving some unethical or illegal practices.
- 18A group of atoms linked by bonds to form a closed chain in a molecule.
- 19A planar geometrical figure included between two concentric circles.
- 20A diacritical mark in the shape of a hollow circle placed above or under the letter; a kroužek.
- 21An old English measure of corn equal to the coomb or half a quarter.
- 22A hierarchical level of privilege in a computer system, usually at hardware level, used to protect data and functionality (also protection ring).
- 23Either of the pair of clamps used to hold a telescopic sight to a rifle.
- 24The twenty-fifth Lenormand card.
- 25A network topology where connected devices form a circular data channel. All computers on the ring can see every message, and there are no collisions, and a single point of failure will occur if any part of the ring breaks.
Etymology
From Middle English ryng, from Old English hring (“ring, circle”), from Proto-West Germanic *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krengʰ-, extended nasalized form of *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Doublet of rank and rink, as well as indirectly range. Cognates * West Frisian ring * Low German Ring * Dutch ring * German Ring * Swedish ring * Finnish rengas More distantly cognate with Proto-Slavic *krǫgъ (whence Bulgarian кръг (krǎg), Polish krąg, Russian круг (krug)).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: irng,rign,ringg,rinng,rnig,rring
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for ring
Misspelling Variants of "ring"
Frequency rank: #1,644 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: