setup
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 "setup", 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 "setup" 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 "setup" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
setup is aEnglishnoun. It means: Equipment designed for a particular purpose; an apparatus. Pronounced /ˈsɛtʌp/. It ranks #6,181 in English word frequency. Often confused with sup and Stu.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | setup |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɛtʌp/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #6,181 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for setup is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɛtʌp/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,181 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 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for setup, with forms such as "estup", "setpu", and "settup". 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, "sup", "Stu", "STP", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Deverbal from set up. 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 setup, spelled S-E-T-U-P, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Equipment designed for a particular purpose; an apparatus.
- 2The fashion in which something is organized or arranged.
- 3A situation orchestrated to frame someone; a covert effort to place the blame on somebody.
- 4An installer.
- 5The process or instance of arranging resources for performing a specific operation, as a run of a particular product.
- 6The tendency of persistent wind to produce higher water levels at the downwind shore of a body of water and lower at the upwind shore.
- 7A move or set of moves which are meant to draw out a reaction which leaves an exploitable opening in defense.
Etymology
Deverbal from set up.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: estup,setpu,settup,setupp,seutp,ssetup,steup
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for setup
Misspelling Variants of "setup"
Frequency rank: #6,181 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "setup"?
What does "setup" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "setup"?
How do you pronounce "setup"?
What is the origin of the word "setup"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: