save
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "save", 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 "save" 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 "save" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
save is aEnglishverb. It means: To prevent harm or difficulty. Pronounced /seɪv/. It ranks #755 in English word frequency. Often confused with se and SV.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | save |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /seɪv/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #755 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for save is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /seɪv/. Corpus data places it at rank #755 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for save, with forms such as "asve", "saev", and "savve". 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, "se", "SV", "she", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sl̥h₂-wós Proto-Italic *salawos Latin salvus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin salvō Latin salvāre Old French sauv… 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 save, spelled S-A-V-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To prevent harm or difficulty.
- 2To prevent harm or difficulty.
- 3To prevent harm or difficulty.
- 4To prevent harm or difficulty.
- 5To prevent harm or difficulty.
- 6To prevent harm or difficulty.
- 7To put aside; to avoid.
- 8To put aside; to avoid.
- 9To put aside; to avoid.
- 10To put aside; to avoid.
- 11To put aside; to avoid.
- 12To put aside; to avoid.
- 13To put aside; to avoid.
- 14To put aside; to avoid.
- 15To put aside; to avoid.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sl̥h₂-wós Proto-Italic *salawos Latin salvus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin salvō Latin salvāre Old French sauverbor. Middle English saven English save From Middle English saven, sauven, a borrowing from Old French sauver, from Late Latin salvāre (“to save”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: asve,saev,savve,ssave,svae
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for save
Misspelling Variants of "save"
Frequency rank: #755 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: