spark
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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5 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "spark", 5-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 "spark" 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 "spark" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
spark is aEnglishnoun. It means: A small particle of glowing matter, either molten or on fire, resulting from an electrical surge or excessive heat created by friction. Pronounced /spɑɹk/. It ranks #7,290 in English word frequency. Often confused with SPR and star.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | spark |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /spɑɹk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,290 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for spark is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /spɑɹk/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,290 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for spark, with forms such as "psark", "saprk", and "spakr". 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, "SPR", "star", "spur", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sparke, sperke, from Old English spearca, from Proto-West Germanic *sparkō (compare Saterland Frisian Spoorke, West Frisian spark, Dutch spark, German Low German Sparke, German Sparke), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *sparkaz (“lively, ener… 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 spark, spelled S-P-A-R-K, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A small particle of glowing matter, either molten or on fire, resulting from an electrical surge or excessive heat created by friction.
- 2A short or small burst of electrical discharge.
- 3A small, shining body, or transient light; a sparkle.
- 4A small amount of something, such as an idea or romantic affection, that has the potential to become something greater, just as a spark can start a fire.
- 5Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the Indomalayan genus Sinthusa.
- 6A ship's radio operator.
- 7An electrician.
- 8A small collection of cells which briefly appears at the edge of a larger pattern before dying off.
- 9A diamond, especially one set in a piece of jewellery.
Etymology
From Middle English sparke, sperke, from Old English spearca, from Proto-West Germanic *sparkō (compare Saterland Frisian Spoorke, West Frisian spark, Dutch spark, German Low German Sparke, German Sparke), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *sparkaz (“lively, energetic”), from Proto-Indo-European *sperg- (“to strew, sprinkle”) (compare Breton erc’h (“snow”), Latin spargō (“to scatter, spread”), sparsus (“scattered”), Lithuanian sprógti (“to germinate”), Ancient Greek σπαργάω (spargáō, “to swell”), Avestan 𐬟𐬭𐬀𐬯𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬈𐬔𐬀 (frasparega, “branch, twig”), Sanskrit पर्जन्य (parjanya, “rain, rain god”)).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: psark,saprk,spakr,sparkk,sparrk,sppark,sprak,sspark
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for spark
Misspelling Variants of "spark"
Frequency rank: #7,290 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: