serif
/ˈsɛɹɪf/noun, adjective
serif is spelled S-E-R-I-F: 5 letters. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,767th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, serif means “A short line added to the end of a stroke in traditional typefaces, such as Times New Roman” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of serif is serifs.
How many letters and syllables are in serif?
| Letters | 5: S-E-R-I-F |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 44,767th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is serif?
Serif appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,767th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce serif?
- /ˈsɛɹɪf/
- /səˈɹiːf/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-serif.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with serif
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with serif?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as serif.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: fires, fries.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of serif
- serifs plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does serif mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A short line added to the end of a stroke in traditional typefaces, such as Times New Roman.
adjective
- 1
Of a typeface, provided with serifs.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Serif in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | empattement, sérif |
| German | Serife |
| Portuguese | serifa |
| Spanish | gracia, remate, serifa, patín, terminal , con serifas |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does serif come from?
From earlier ceriph, seriph, surryph, of obscure derivation. There are two (not directly interrelated) candidates for a possible Dutch origin: 1.) the noun schreef (“stroke”, now also “serif” as a semantic loan), related with schrapen (“to scrape”); and 2.) the verb schrafferen (“to provide with horizontal lines, to shade”), from Italian sgraffiare. For the latter, compare German Schraffe (“serif”), although this again may be a semantic loan based on the English word rather than original to it.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).