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stork

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 "stork", 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 "stork" 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 "stork" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

stork is aEnglishnoun. It means: A large wading bird with long legs and a long beak of the order Ciconiiformes and its family Ciconiidae. Pronounced /stɔɹk/. Often confused with STR and stow.

Key facts for stork
PropertyValue
Headwordstork
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/stɔɹk/
Letters5
Frequency rank#33,860
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of stork in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for stork is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /stɔɹk/. Corpus data places it at rank #33,860 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 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 stork, with forms such as "sotrk", "sstork", and "stokr". 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, "STR", "stow", "story", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English stork, from Old English storc, from Proto-West Germanic *stork, from Proto-Germanic *sturkaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sr̥ǵos (“stork”). Near cognates include Dutch stork, German Storch, Swedish stork, and Icelandic storkur. Compare als… 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 stork, spelled S-T-O-R-K, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A large wading bird with long legs and a long beak of the order Ciconiiformes and its family Ciconiidae.
  2. 2
    The mythical bringer of babies to families, or good news.
  3. 3
    The seventeenth Lenormand card.

Etymology

From Middle English stork, from Old English storc, from Proto-West Germanic *stork, from Proto-Germanic *sturkaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sr̥ǵos (“stork”). Near cognates include Dutch stork, German Storch, Swedish stork, and Icelandic storkur. Compare also Latvian stārķis (“stork”), borrowed from Germanic.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: sotrk,sstork,stokr,storkk,storrk,strok,sttork,tsork

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for stork

Misspelling Variants of "stork"

sotrk5sstork6stokr5storkk6storrk6strok5sttork6tsork5
Misspelling Variants of "stork"

Frequency rank: #33,860 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "stork"?
"stork" is spelled S-T-O-R-K. The IPA pronunciation is /stɔɹk/.
What does "stork" mean?
As a noun, "stork" means: A large wading bird with long legs and a long beak of the order Ciconiiformes and its family Ciconiidae.
What words are commonly confused with "stork"?
"stork" is commonly confused with "STR", "stow", "story". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "stork"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "stork" is /stɔɹk/. 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 "stork"?
From Middle English stork, from Old English storc, from Proto-West Germanic *stork, from Proto-Germanic *sturkaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sr̥ǵos (“stork”). Near cognates include Dutch stork, German Storch, Swedish stork, and Icelandic storkur. C... 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.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.