score
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "score", 5-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 "score" 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 "score" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
score is aEnglishnoun. It means: The total number of goals, points, runs, etc. earned by a participant in a game. Pronounced /skɔː/. It ranks #1,576 in English word frequency. Often confused with soe and sor.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | score |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /skɔː/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,576 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for score is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /skɔː/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,576 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 23 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for score, with forms such as "csore", "sccore", and "scoer". 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, "soe", "sor", "some", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English score, skore, schore, from Old English scoru (“notch; tally; score”), from Old Norse skor, from Proto-Germanic *skurō (“incision; tear; rift”), which is related to *skeraną (“to cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“cut”)… 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 score, spelled S-C-O-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The total number of goals, points, runs, etc. earned by a participant in a game.
- 2The number of points accrued by each of the participants in a game, expressed as a ratio or a series of numbers.
- 3The performance of an individual or group on an examination or test, expressed by a number, letter, or other symbol; a grade.
- 4Twenty (20).
- 5Twenty (20).
- 6Twenty (20).
- 7Twenty (20).
- 8Twenty (20).
- 9A great deal; many, several.
- 10An amount of money won in gambling; winnings.
- 11The written form of a musical composition showing all instrumental and vocal parts.
- 12The music of a movie or play.
- 13A subject.
- 14An account; a reason; a motive; a sake; a behalf.
- 15A notch or incision; especially, one that is made as a tally mark; hence, a mark, or line, made for the purpose of account.
- 16An account or reckoning; account of dues; bill; debt.
- 17A criminal act, especially:
- 18A criminal act, especially:
- 19A criminal act, especially:
- 20A criminal act, especially:
- 21A sexual conquest.
- 22In the Lowestoft area, a narrow pathway running down a cliff to the beach.
- 23A document which systematically lists differences among compiled manuscripts of a source text.
Etymology
From Middle English score, skore, schore, from Old English scoru (“notch; tally; score”), from Old Norse skor, from Proto-Germanic *skurō (“incision; tear; rift”), which is related to *skeraną (“to cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“cut”). Cognate with Icelandic skora, Swedish skåra, Danish skår. Related to shear. For the sense “twenty”: The mark on a tally made by drovers for every twenty beasts passing through a tollgate.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: csore,sccore,scoer,scorre,scroe,socre,sscore
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for score
Misspelling Variants of "score"
Frequency rank: #1,576 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "score"?
What does "score" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "score"?
How do you pronounce "score"?
What is the origin of the word "score"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: