slip
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "slip", 4-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 "slip" 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 "slip" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
slip is aEnglishverb. It means: To lose one’s traction on a slippery surface; to slide due to a lack of friction. Pronounced /slɪp/. It ranks #4,488 in English word frequency. Often confused with SP and SNP.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | slip |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /slɪp/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #4,488 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for slip is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /slɪp/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,488 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 17 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for slip, with forms such as "lsip", "silp", and "slipp". 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, "SP", "SNP", "sup", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English slippen, probably from Middle Low German slippen, from Old Saxon *slippian, from Proto-West Germanic *slippjan, from Proto-Germanic *slipjaną (“to glide”), an iterative form of *slīpaną (“to slip, slide”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyb… 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 slip, spelled S-L-I-P, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To lose one’s traction on a slippery surface; to slide due to a lack of friction.
- 2To err.
- 3To accidentally reveal a secret or otherwise say something unintentionally.
- 4To move or fly (out of place); to shoot; often with out, off, etc.
- 5To elude or evade by smooth movement.
- 6To pass (a note, money, etc.), often covertly.
- 7To cause to move smoothly and quickly; to slide; to convey gently or secretly.
- 8To move quickly and often secretively; to depart, withdraw, enter, appear, intrude, or escape as if by sliding.
- 9To move down; to slide.
- 10To release (a dog, a bird of prey, etc.) to go after a quarry.
- 11Clipping of sideslip (“to fly with the longitudinal axis misaligned with the relative wind”).
- 12To remove the skin of a soft fruit, such as a tomato or peach, by blanching briefly in boiling water, then transferring to cold water so that the skin peels, or slips, off easily.
- 13To omit; to lose by negligence.
- 14To cut slips from; to cut; to take off; to make a slip or slips of.
- 15To cause to slip or slide off, or out of place.
- 16To bring forth (young) prematurely; to slink.
- 17To cause (a schedule or release, etc.) to go, or let it go, beyond the allotted deadline.
Etymology
From Middle English slippen, probably from Middle Low German slippen, from Old Saxon *slippian, from Proto-West Germanic *slippjan, from Proto-Germanic *slipjaną (“to glide”), an iterative form of *slīpaną (“to slip, slide”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyb- (“slimy; to slide”). Possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *slewbʰ- (“slip, slide”), or related to Proto-Germanic *slībaną (“to split”); related to Old English slipor (“slippery”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian slipje (“to slip”), Dutch slippen (“to slip”), German Low German slippen.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: lsip,silp,slipp,sllip,slpi,sslip
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for slip
Misspelling Variants of "slip"
Frequency rank: #4,488 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: