spin
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "spin", 4-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 "spin" 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 "spin" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
spin is aEnglishverb. It means: To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction. Pronounced /spɪn/. It ranks #3,786 in English word frequency. Often confused with sun and spy.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | spin |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /spɪn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #3,786 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for spin is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /spɪn/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,786 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 21 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for spin, with forms such as "psin", "sipn", and "spinn". 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, "sun", "spy", "STI", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English spinnen, from Old English spinnan, from Proto-Germanic *spinnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)penh₁-. Cognates Cognate with Dutch, German spinnen (“to spin”), Luxembourgish spannen (“to spin”), Yiddish שפּינען (shpinen, “spin”), Danish … 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 spin, spelled S-P-I-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction.
- 2To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction.
- 3To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction.
- 4To make yarn by twisting and winding fibers together.
- 5To present, describe, or interpret, or to introduce a bias or slant, so as to give something a favorable or advantageous appearance.
- 6To make the ball move sideways when it bounces on the pitch.
- 7To move sideways when bouncing.
- 8To form into thin strips or ribbons, as with sugar
- 9To form (a web, a cocoon, silk, etc.) from threads produced by the extrusion of a viscid, transparent liquid, which hardens on coming into contact with the air; said of the spider, the silkworm, etc.
- 10To shape, as malleable sheet metal, into a hollow form, by bending or buckling it by pressing against it with a smooth hand tool or roller while the metal revolves, as in a lathe.
- 11To move swiftly.
- 12To stream or issue in a thread or a small current or jet.
- 13To wait in a loop until some condition becomes true.
- 14To rotate into the gravel or managing to remain on the straight as a result of bad weather.
- 15To play (vinyl records, etc.) as a disc jockey.
- 16To use an exercise bicycle, especially as part of a gym class.
- 17To ride a bicycle at a fast cadence.
- 18To search rapidly.
- 19To draw out tediously; prolong.
- 20To fish with a swivel or spoonbait.
- 21To reject at an examination; to fail (a student).
Etymology
From Middle English spinnen, from Old English spinnan, from Proto-Germanic *spinnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)penh₁-. Cognates Cognate with Dutch, German spinnen (“to spin”), Luxembourgish spannen (“to spin”), Yiddish שפּינען (shpinen, “spin”), Danish spinde (“to spin”), Faroese, Icelandic and Swedish spinna (“to spin”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk spinne (“to spin”), Gothic 𐍃𐍀𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (spinnan, “to spin”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: psin,sipn,spinn,spni,sppin,sspin
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for spin
Misspelling Variants of "spin"
Frequency rank: #3,786 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "spin"?
What does "spin" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "spin"?
How do you pronounce "spin"?
What is the origin of the word "spin"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: