sequel
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "sequel", 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 "sequel" 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 "sequel" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
sequel is aEnglishnoun. It means: The events, collectively, which follow a previously mentioned event; the aftermath. Pronounced /ˈsiːkwəl/. It ranks #7,394 in English word frequency. Often confused with sexual and squeal.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sequel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsiːkwəl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #7,394 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sequel is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsiːkwəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,394 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for sequel, with forms such as "esquel", "seqeul", and "seqquel". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "sexual", "squeal", "sequin", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sequele, sequelle, sequile, from Middle French sequele, sequelle and its etymon, Latin sequēla, from sequī (“to follow”). Doublet of sequela. 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 sequel, spelled S-E-Q-U-E-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The events, collectively, which follow a previously mentioned event; the aftermath.
- 2A narrative that is written after another narrative set in the same universe, especially a narrative that is chronologically set after its predecessors, or (perhaps improper usage) any narrative that has a preceding narrative of its own.
- 3A narrative that is written after another narrative set in the same universe, especially a narrative that is chronologically set after its predecessors, or (perhaps improper usage) any narrative that has a preceding narrative of its own.
- 4Any text that continues on from another text.
- 5The remainder of the text; what follows. Used exclusively in the set phrase "in the sequel".
- 6Thirlage.
- 7A person's descendants.
Etymology
From Middle English sequele, sequelle, sequile, from Middle French sequele, sequelle and its etymon, Latin sequēla, from sequī (“to follow”). Doublet of sequela.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: esquel,seqeul,seqquel,sequell,sequle,seuqel,sqeuel,ssequel
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for sequel
Misspelling Variants of "sequel"
Frequency rank: #7,394 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: