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PlainSpell

sphere

UK /sfɪə/noun, verb

sphere is spelled S-P-H-E-R-E: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 8.1 times per million words in written English, the 8,146th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sphere means “A surface in three dimensions consisting of all points equidistant from a center” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sphere is spheres.

How many letters and syllables are in sphere?

Letters6: S-P-H-E-R-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing8.1 times per million words; the 8,146th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is sphere?

Sphere appears 8.1 times per million words in written English, the 8,146th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce sphere?

  • UK /sfɪə/
  • British /sfɪː/
  • British /ˈsfɪj.ə/

Sphere has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-sphere.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with sphere?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sphere from its last stressed vowel (/ɪə/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: herpes, pesher.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of sphere

  • spheres plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • sphering participle, present
  • sphered participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does sphere mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A surface in three dimensions consisting of all points equidistant from a center. .

  2. 2

    An object which appears to be bounded by a sphere; a round object, a ball.

  3. 3

    archaicThe celestial sphere: the edge of the heavens, imagined as a hollow globe within which celestial bodies appear to be embedded.

  4. 4

    Any of the concentric hollow transparent globes formerly believed to rotate around the Earth, and which carried the heavenly bodies; there were originally believed to be eight, and later nine and ten; friction between them was thought to cause a harmonious sound (the music of the spheres).

  5. 5

    An area of activity for a planet; or by extension, an area of influence for a god, hero etc.

  6. 6

    The region in which something or someone is active; one's province, domain.

    sphere of influence

  7. 7

    The natural, normal, or proper place (of something).

    in one's sphere

  8. 8

    The set of all points in three-dimensional Euclidean space (or n-dimensional space, in topology) that are a fixed distance from a fixed point .

verb

  1. 1

    To place in a sphere, or among the spheres; to ensphere.

  2. 2

    To make round or spherical; to perfect.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sphere in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsphère (mathematics: regular three-dimensional object), boule (spherical physical object)
GermanKugel (mathematics: regular three-dimensional object), Sphäre, Bereich (region in which something or someone is active)
Portugueseesfera (mathematics: regular three-dimensional object)
Spanishesfera (mathematics: regular three-dimensional object), bola (spherical physical object), -sfera (designating some layer of the Earth)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does sphere come from?

From Middle English spere, from Old French sphere, from Late Latin sphēra, earlier Latin sphaera (“ball, globe, celestial sphere”), from Ancient Greek σφαῖρα (sphaîra, “ball, globe”), of unknown origin. Not related to superficially similar Persian سپهر (sepehr, “sky”) . Displaced Old English cliewen, þoþor, and æppel.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after sphere