spend

/spɛnd/

//spɛnd// verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"spend" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“spend” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,152. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,152
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To pay out (money).

Corpus desk

Index EN-spend · spend · English

spend · rank #1,152 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,152
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH sounds

Nearest frequency peer: sounds (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “spend”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “spend” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

spend vs spin
60% similar
spend vs sued
60% similar
spend vs spun
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for spend
PropertyValue
Headwordspend
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/spɛnd/
Letters5
Frequency rank#1,152
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “spend”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).spendlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “sounds” (#1,151), “statement” (#1,153), “sold” (#1,150). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “spend” is #1,152. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around spend (IPA /spɛnd/), averb. Corpus frequency is #1,152 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for spend, with forms such as "psend", "sepnd", and "spedn". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "spin", "sued", "spun", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English spenden, from Old English spendan (attested especially in compounds āspendan (“to spend”), forspendan (“to use up, consume”)), from Proto-West Germanic *spendōn (“to spend”), borrowed from Latin expendere (“to weigh out”). Doublet of exp… The correct English form is spend, spelled S-P-E-N-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    To pay out (money).
  2. 2
    To bestow; to employ; often with on or upon.
  3. 3
    To squander.
  4. 4
    To exhaust, to wear out.
  5. 5
    To consume, to use up (time).
  6. 6
    To have an orgasm; to ejaculate sexually.
  7. 7
    To waste or wear away; to be consumed.
  8. 8
    To be diffused; to spread.
  9. 9
    To break ground; to continue working.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how spend appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. He spends far more on gambling than he does on living proper.
  2. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. We spent consider'ble money getting 'em reset, and then a swordfish got into the pound and tore the nets all to slathers, right in the middle of the squiteague season.

Etymology

From Middle English spenden, from Old English spendan (attested especially in compounds āspendan (“to spend”), forspendan (“to use up, consume”)), from Proto-West Germanic *spendōn (“to spend”), borrowed from Latin expendere (“to weigh out”). Doublet of expend. Cognate with Old High German spentōn (“to consume, use, spend”) (whence German spenden (“to donate, provide”)), Middle Dutch spenden (“to spend, dedicate”), Old Icelandic spenna (“to spend”).

This word in other languages

gastar(Español)dépenser(Français)ausgeben(Deutsch)gastar(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • psend
  • sepnd
  • spedn
  • spendd
  • spennd
  • spned
  • sppend
  • sspend

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of spend - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

psend2sepnd2spedn2spendd1spennd1spned2sppend1sspend1
Edit distance from "spend"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "spend"?
"spend" is spelled S-P-E-N-D. The IPA pronunciation is /spɛnd/.
What does "spend" mean?
As a verb, "spend" means: To pay out (money).
What words are commonly confused with "spend"?
"spend" is commonly confused with "spin", "sued", "spun". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "spend"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "spend" is /spɛnd/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "spend"?
From Middle English spenden, from Old English spendan (attested especially in compounds āspendan (“to spend”), forspendan (“to use up, consume”)), from Proto-West Germanic *spendōn (“to spend”), borrowed from Latin expendere (“to weigh out”). Doub... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "spend", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

scene#1,149teams#1,155photo#1,145coach#1,160

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

income8 variantsCanada8 variantsnature8 variantsauthor8 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list