summer
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "summer", 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 "summer" 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 "summer" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
summer is aEnglishnoun. It means: One of four seasons, traditionally the second, marked by the longest and typically hottest days of the year due to the inclination of the Earth and thermal lag. Typically regarded as spanning eithe... Pronounced /ˈsʌmə/. It ranks #599 in English word frequency. Often confused with super and summit.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | summer |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsʌmə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #599 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for summer is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsʌmə/. Corpus data places it at rank #599 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for summer, with forms such as "smumer", "ssummer", and "sumemr". 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, "super", "summit", "supper", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English somer, sumer, from Old English sumor (“summer”), from Proto-West Germanic *sumar, from Proto-Germanic *sumaraz (“summer”), from Proto-Indo-European *sm̥-h₂-ó-, oblique of *semh₂- (“summer, year”). Cognate with Scots somer, sumer, simer (… 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 summer, spelled S-U-M-M-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1One of four seasons, traditionally the second, marked by the longest and typically hottest days of the year due to the inclination of the Earth and thermal lag. Typically regarded as spanning either the period between the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox, or the months of June, July, and August in the Northern Hemisphere and the months of December, January and February in the Southern Hemisphere.
- 2year; used to give the age of a person, usually a young one.
- 3Most flourishing, happy, or beautiful period; golden age, prime.
- 4Someone with light, pinkish skin that has a blue undertone, light hair and eyes, seen as best suited to certain colors of clothing.
Etymology
From Middle English somer, sumer, from Old English sumor (“summer”), from Proto-West Germanic *sumar, from Proto-Germanic *sumaraz (“summer”), from Proto-Indo-European *sm̥-h₂-ó-, oblique of *semh₂- (“summer, year”). Cognate with Scots somer, sumer, simer (“summer”), West Frisian simmer (“summer”), Saterland Frisian Suumer (“summer”), Dutch zomer (“summer”), Low German Sommer (“summer”), German Sommer (“summer”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål sommer (“summer”), Swedish sommar (“summer”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Icelandic sumar (“summer”), Welsh haf (“summer”), Armenian ամ (am, “year”), ամառ (amaṙ, “summer”), Sanskrit समा (sámā, “a half-year, season, weather, year”), Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬨 (ham-, “summer”), Middle Persian ḥʾmyn (hāmīn, “summer”), Northern Kurdish havîn (“summer”), Central Kurdish ھاوین (hawîn, “summer”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: smumer,ssummer,sumemr,sumer,summerr,summre,usmmer
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for summer
Misspelling Variants of "summer"
Frequency rank: #599 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "summer"?
What does "summer" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "summer"?
How do you pronounce "summer"?
What is the origin of the word "summer"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: