squib
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "squib", 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 "squib" 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 "squib" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
squib is aEnglishnoun. It means: A small firework that is intended to spew sparks rather than explode. Pronounced /skwɪb/.
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Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | squib |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /skwɪb/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #67,856 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for squib is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /skwɪb/. Corpus data places it at rank #67,856 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for squib in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Possibly imitative of a small explosion. 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 squib, spelled S-Q-U-I-B, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A small firework that is intended to spew sparks rather than explode.
- 2A similar device used to ignite an explosive or launch a rocket, etc.
- 3A kind of slow match or safety fuse.
- 4Any small firecracker sold to the general public, usually in special clusters designed to explode in series after a single master fuse is lit.
- 5A malfunction in which the fired projectile does not have enough force behind it to exit the barrel, and thus becomes stuck.
- 6The heating element used to set off the sodium azide pellets in a vehicle's airbag.
- 7In special effects, a small explosive used to replicate a bullet hitting a surface or a gunshot wound on an actor.
- 8A short piece of witty writing; a lampoon.
- 9A writer of lampoons.
- 10In a legal casebook, a short summary of a legal action placed between more extensively quoted cases.
- 11A short article, often published in journals, that introduces theoretically problematic empirical data or discusses an overlooked theoretical problem. In contrast to a typical article, a squib need not answer the questions that it poses.
- 12An unimportant, paltry, or mean-spirited person.
- 13A sketched concept or visual solution, usually very quick and not too detailed.
- 14A coward or wimp.
Etymology
Possibly imitative of a small explosion.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #67,856 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: