signal
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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6 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "signal", 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 "signal" 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 "signal" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
signal is aEnglishnoun. It means: A sequence of states representing an encoded message in a communication channel. Pronounced /ˈsɪɡnəl/. It ranks #2,406 in English word frequency. Often confused with Sina and signs.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | signal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɪɡnəl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #2,406 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for signal is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɪɡnəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,406 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for signal, with forms such as "isgnal", "sginal", and "siganl". 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 15 confusable-pair relationships, "Sina", "signs", "Sinai", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French segnal, seignal or Medieval Latin signāle; noun use of the neuter of Late Latin signālis, from Latin signum; verb use from 1805, as a shortened from signalize (1650s). 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 signal, spelled S-I-G-N-A-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A sequence of states representing an encoded message in a communication channel.
- 2Any variation of a quantity or change in an entity over time that conveys information upon detection.
- 3A sign made to give notice of some occurrence, command, or danger, or to indicate the start of a concerted action.
- 4An on-off light, semaphore, or other device used to give an indication to another person.
- 5An on-off light, semaphore, or other device used to give an indication to another person.
- 6An electromagnetic action, normally a voltage that is a function of time, that conveys the information of the radio or TV program or of communication with another party.
- 7An action, change or process done to convey information and thus reduce uncertainty.
- 8A token; an indication; a foreshadowing; a sign.
- 9Useful information, as opposed to noise.
- 10A simple interprocess communication used to notify a process or thread of an occurrence.
- 11A signalling interaction between cells
Etymology
From Old French segnal, seignal or Medieval Latin signāle; noun use of the neuter of Late Latin signālis, from Latin signum; verb use from 1805, as a shortened from signalize (1650s).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: isgnal,sginal,siganl,siggnal,signall,signla,signnal,singal,ssignal
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for signal
Misspelling Variants of "signal"
Frequency rank: #2,406 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: