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sunder

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

6 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "sunder", 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 "sunder" 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 "sunder" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

sunder is anEnglishadj. It means: Sundry; separate; different. Pronounced /ˈsʌndɚ/.

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Key facts for sunder
PropertyValue
Headwordsunder
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdj
IPA/ˈsʌndɚ/
Letters6
Frequency rank#55,129
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for sunder is 6 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsʌndɚ/. Corpus data places it at rank #55,129 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Sundry; separate; different.".

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for sunder 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: From Middle English sunder, from Old English sundor- (“separate, different”), from Proto-Germanic *sundraz (“isolated, particular, alone”), from Proto-Indo-European *snter-, *seni-, *senu-, *san- (“apart, without, for oneself”). Cognate with Old Saxon sunda… 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 sunder, spelled S-U-N-D-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sundry; separate; different.

Etymology

From Middle English sunder, from Old English sundor- (“separate, different”), from Proto-Germanic *sundraz (“isolated, particular, alone”), from Proto-Indo-European *snter-, *seni-, *senu-, *san- (“apart, without, for oneself”). Cognate with Old Saxon sundar (“particular, special”), Dutch zonder (“without”), German sonder- (“special”), German sondern (“to separate, set apart”), Old Norse sundr (“separate”), Danish sønder (“apart, asunder”), Latin sine (“without”).

Frequency rank: #55,129 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sunder"?
"sunder" is spelled S-U-N-D-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈsʌndɚ/.
What does "sunder" mean?
As an adj, "sunder" means: Sundry; separate; different.
How do you pronounce "sunder"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sunder" is /ˈsʌndɚ/. 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 "sunder"?
From Middle English sunder, from Old English sundor- (“separate, different”), from Proto-Germanic *sundraz (“isolated, particular, alone”), from Proto-Indo-European *snter-, *seni-, *senu-, *san- (“apart, without, for oneself”). Cognate with Old S... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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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.