strong
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "strong", 6-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 "strong" 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 "strong" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
strong is anEnglishadj. It means: Capable of producing great physical force. Pronounced /stɹɒŋ/. It ranks #614 in English word frequency. Often confused with stung and strung.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | strong |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /stɹɒŋ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #614 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for strong is 6 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /stɹɒŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #614 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 17 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for strong, with forms such as "srtong", "sstrong", and "storng". 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, "stung", "strung", "Stroud", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English strong, strang, from Old English strang (“strong”), from Proto-West Germanic *strang (“severe, strict, rigorous, strong”), from Proto-Germanic *strangaz (“tight, strict, straight, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- (“taut, stif… 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 strong, spelled S-T-R-O-N-G, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Capable of producing great physical force.
- 2Capable of withstanding great physical force.
- 3Possessing power, might, or strength.
- 4Determined; unyielding.
- 5Highly stimulating to the senses.
- 6Having an offensive or intense odor or flavor.
- 7Having a high concentration of an essential or active ingredient.
- 8Having a high alcoholic content.
- 9Inflecting in a different manner than the one called weak, such as Germanic verbs which change vowels.
- 10That completely ionizes into anions and cations in a solution.
- 11Not easily subdued or taken.
- 12Having wealth or resources.
- 13Impressive, good.
- 14Having a specified number of people or units.
- 15Severe; very bad or intense.
- 16Having a wide range of logical consequences; widely applicable. (Often contrasted with a weak statement which it implies.)
- 17Convincing.
Etymology
From Middle English strong, strang, from Old English strang (“strong”), from Proto-West Germanic *strang (“severe, strict, rigorous, strong”), from Proto-Germanic *strangaz (“tight, strict, straight, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- (“taut, stiff, tight”). Cognate with Scots strang (“strong”), Saterland Frisian strang, West Frisian string (“austere, strict, harsh, severe, stern, stark, tough”), Dutch streng (“strict, severe, tight”), German streng (“strict, severe, austere”), Danish and Norwegian streng (“strong, hard”), Faroese and Icelandic strangur (“strict”), Norwegian strang (“strong, harsh, bitter”), Swedish sträng, strang (“severe, strict, harsh”), Latin stringō (“tighten”). Doublet of strict and string.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: srtong,sstrong,storng,strnog,strogn,strongg,stronng,strrong,sttrong,tsrong
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for strong
Misspelling Variants of "strong"
Frequency rank: #614 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: