signature
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
9 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "signature", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "signature" 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 "signature" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
signature is aEnglishnoun. It means: A person's name, written by that person, used as identification or to signify approval of accompanying material, such as a legal contract. Pronounced /ˈsɪɡnət͡ʃə(ɹ)/. It ranks #4,713 in English word frequency. Often confused with signatory.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | signature |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɪɡnət͡ʃə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #4,713 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for signature is 9 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɪɡnət͡ʃə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,713 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for signature, with forms such as "isgnature", "sginature", and "siganture". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "signatory", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French signature, or from Medieval Latin signātūra, future active periphrastic of verb signāre from signum (“sign”), + -tūra, feminine of -tūrus, future active periphrastic suffix. Displaced native Old English handseten (literally “hand… 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 signature, spelled S-I-G-N-A-T-U-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A person's name, written by that person, used as identification or to signify approval of accompanying material, such as a legal contract.
- 2An act of signing one's name; an act of producing a signature.
- 3The part of a doctor’s prescription containing directions for the patient.
- 4Signs on the stave indicating key and tempo, composed of the key signature and the time signature.
- 5A group of four (or a multiple of four) sheets printed such that, when folded, they become a section of a book.
- 6A pattern used for matching the identity of a virus, the parameter types of a method, etc.
- 7Data attached to a message that guarantees that the message originated from its claimed source.
- 8A mark or sign of implication.
- 9A distinguishing feature or product.
- 10A tuple specifying the sign of coefficients in any diagonal form of a quadratic form.
- 11A resemblance between the external character of a disease and those of some physical agent, for instance, that existing between the red skin of scarlet fever and a red cloth; supposed to indicate this agent in the treatment of the disease.
- 12Text (or images, etc.) appended to a user's emails, newsgroup posts, forum posts, etc. as a way of adding a personal touch or including contact details.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French signature, or from Medieval Latin signātūra, future active periphrastic of verb signāre from signum (“sign”), + -tūra, feminine of -tūrus, future active periphrastic suffix. Displaced native Old English handseten (literally “hand setting”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: isgnature,sginature,siganture,siggnature,signatrue,signatture,signatuer,signaturre,signautre,signnature,signtaure,singature,ssignature
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for signature
Misspelling Variants of "signature"
Frequency rank: #4,713 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: