solemn
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 "solemn", 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 "solemn" 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 "solemn" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
solemn is anEnglishadj. It means: Of or pertaining to religious ceremonies and rites; (generally) religious in nature; sacred. Pronounced /ˈsɒləm/. Often confused with solon and stolen.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | solemn |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ˈsɒləm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #17,031 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for solemn is 6 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɒləm/. Corpus data places it at rank #17,031 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 5 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 solemn, with forms such as "oslemn", "sloemn", and "soelmn". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "solon", "stolen", "spleen", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English solempne, solemne (“performed with religious ceremony or reverence; devoted to religious observances, sacred; ceremonious, formal; of a vow: made under a religious sanction, binding; religious celebration, celebration of a feast day; fam… 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 solemn, spelled S-O-L-E-M-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Of or pertaining to religious ceremonies and rites; (generally) religious in nature; sacred.
- 2Characterized by or performed with appropriate or great ceremony or formality.
- 3Deeply serious and sombre; grave.
- 4Inspiring serious feelings or thoughts; sombrely impressive.
- 5Cheerless, gloomy, sombre.
Etymology
From Middle English solempne, solemne (“performed with religious ceremony or reverence; devoted to religious observances, sacred; ceremonious, formal; of a vow: made under a religious sanction, binding; religious celebration, celebration of a feast day; famous, well-known; important; grand, imposing; awe-inspiring, impressive; grave, serious; dignified; enunciated or held formally”) [and other forms], from Old French solempne, solemne (“serious, solemn”) [and other forms], or from its etymon Late Latin sōlempnis, sōlennis, from Latin sōlemnis, from sollemnis (“appointed, established, fixed; common, customary, ordinary, ritual, traditional, usual; ceremonial, religious, solemn; festive; annual, yearly”) [and other forms]. The further etymology is uncertain; sollus (“entire, whole”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *solh₂- (“whole”)) + epulum (“banquet, feast”) (in the sense of a ritual; perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”)) has been suggested.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: oslemn,sloemn,soelmn,solemmn,solemnn,solenm,sollemn,solmen,ssolemn
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for solemn
Misspelling Variants of "solemn"
Frequency rank: #17,031 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: