smother
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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7 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "smother", 7-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 "smother" 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 "smother" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
smother is aEnglishverb. It means: To suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of something or someone. Pronounced /ˈsməðər/. Often confused with soothe and Smythe.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | smother |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈsməðər/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #35,085 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for smother is 7 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsməðər/. Corpus data places it at rank #35,085 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for smother, with forms such as "msother", "smmother", and "smohter". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "soothe", "Smythe", "spotter", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English smothren, smortheren, alteration (due to smother, smorther (“a suffocating vapour, dense smoke”, noun)) of Middle English smoren (“to smother”), from Old English smorian (“to smother, suffocate, choke”), from Proto-Germanic *smurōną (“to… 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 smother, spelled S-M-O-T-H-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of something or someone.
- 2To extinguish or deaden, as fire, by covering, overlaying, or otherwise excluding the air.
- 3To reduce to a low degree of vigor or activity; suppress or do away with; extinguish
- 4To cook in a close dish.
- 5To daub or smear.
- 6To be suffocated.
- 7To breathe with great difficulty by reason of smoke, dust, close covering or wrapping, or the like.
- 8to burn very slowly for want of air; smolder.
- 9to perish, grow feeble, or decline, by suppression or concealment; be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.
- 10To get in the way of a kick of the ball.
- 11To get in the way of a kick of the ball, preventing it going very far. When a player is kicking the ball, an opponent who is close enough will reach out with his hands and arms to get over the top of it, so the ball hits his hands after leaving the kicker's boot, dribbling away.
- 12To prevent the development of an opponent's attack by one's arm positioning.
Etymology
From Middle English smothren, smortheren, alteration (due to smother, smorther (“a suffocating vapour, dense smoke”, noun)) of Middle English smoren (“to smother”), from Old English smorian (“to smother, suffocate, choke”), from Proto-Germanic *smurōną (“to suffocate, strangle”), probably related to *smallijan (“to burn”) or Old English smoca (“smoke”). Cognate with Middle Low German smoren, smurten (“to choke, suffocate”), West Flemish smoren (“to smoke, reek”), Dutch smoren (“to suffocate, smother", also "to stew, simmer”), German schmoren (“to stew, simmer, braise”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: msother,smmother,smohter,smotehr,smotherr,smothher,smothre,smotther,smtoher,somther,ssmother
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for smother
Misspelling Variants of "smother"
Frequency rank: #35,085 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: