scavenge
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
8 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "scavenge", 8-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "scavenge" 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 "scavenge" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
scavenge is aEnglishverb. It means: To collect and remove refuse, or to search through refuse, carrion, or abandoned items for useful material. Pronounced /ˈskæv.ɪndʒ/.
Compare similar words
See how scavenge compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | scavenge |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈskæv.ɪndʒ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #52,615 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for scavenge is 8 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈskæv.ɪndʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #52,615 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for scavenge in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns.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: Back-formation from scavenger. 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 scavenge, spelled S-C-A-V-E-N-G-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To collect and remove refuse, or to search through refuse, carrion, or abandoned items for useful material.
- 2To remove unwanted material from something, especially to purify molten metal by removing impurities.
- 3To expel the exhaust gases from the cylinder of an internal combustion engine, and draw in air for the next cycle.
- 4To feed on carrion or refuse.
Etymology
Back-formation from scavenger.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #52,615 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "scavenge"?
What does "scavenge" mean?
How do you pronounce "scavenge"?
What is the origin of the word "scavenge"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: