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PlainSpell

serve

/sɝv/verb, noun

serve is spelled S-E-R-V-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 71 times per million words in written English, the 1,486th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, serve means “To be a formal servant for (a god or deity); to worship in an official capacity” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in serve?

Letters5: S-E-R-V-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing71 times per million words; the 1,486th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is serve?

Serve appears 71 times per million words in written English, the 1,486th 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 serve?

  • UK /sɜːv/
  • US /sɝv/
  • /sɑː(ɹ)v/

Serve has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-serve.ogg, En-au-serve.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-serve.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with serve?

8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as serve from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹv/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: verse, sever.

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 serve

  • serves present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • serving participle, present
  • served participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does serve mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To be a formal servant for (a god or deity); to worship in an official capacity.

    And yet this is not the office of a Priest, but of Him whom the Priest should serve.

  2. 2

    To be a servant for; to work for, to be employed by.

  3. 3

    To wait upon (someone) at table; to set food and drink in front of, to help (someone) to food, meals etc.

  4. 4

    To render service by being a servant, worker, employee, or officeholder; to hold those roles and perform their duties.

  5. 5

    To set down (food or drink) on the table to be eaten; to bring (food, drink) to a person.

  6. 6

    archaicTo treat (someone) in a given manner.

  7. 7

    archaicTo be suitor to; to be the lover of.

  8. 8

    To be useful to; to meet the needs of.

noun

  1. 1

    An act of putting the ball or shuttlecock in play in various games.

    Whose serve is it?

  2. 2

    AustraliaA portion of food or drink, a serving.

  3. 3

    An impressive presentation (especially of a person's appearance).

    That white eyeliner is such a serve.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Serve in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchservir (to work for), signifier (legal: to bring to notice, deliver, or execute), purger (to work through (a term)), service (sports: act of putting the ball or shuttlecock…)
Germandienen (to work for), Angabe (sports: act of putting the ball or shuttlecock…), servieren (to bring food to), aufschlagen, den Aufschlag haben (sports: to lead off with first delivery (of the…)
Portugueseservir (to work for), saque, sacada (sports: act of putting the ball or shuttlecock…)
Spanishservir (to work for), servicio (sports: act of putting the ball or shuttlecock…)

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 serve come from?

From Middle English serven, from Old French servir, from Latin serviō (“be a slave; serve”), from Latin servus (“slave; servant”), which perhaps derives from Etruscan (compare Etruscan proper names 𐌔𐌄𐌓𐌅𐌉 (servi), 𐌔𐌄𐌓𐌅𐌄 (serve)), or from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“watch over, protect”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after serve