target
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 "target", 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 "target" 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 "target" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
target is aEnglishnoun. It means: A butt or mark to shoot at, as for practice, or to test the accuracy of a firearm, or the force of a projectile. Pronounced /ˈtɑː.ɡɪt/. It ranks #1,619 in English word frequency. Often confused with tart and tarot.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | target |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtɑː.ɡɪt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,619 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for target is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtɑː.ɡɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,619 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 18 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for target, with forms such as "atrget", "tagret", and "taregt". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "tart", "tarot", "taught", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French targette, targuete, diminutive of targe (“light shield”), from Old French, from Frankish *targa (“buckler”), akin to Old Norse targa (“small round shield”) (whence also Old English targe, targa (“shield”)) from Proto-Germanic *targǭ (“edg… 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 target, spelled T-A-R-G-E-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A butt or mark to shoot at, as for practice, or to test the accuracy of a firearm, or the force of a projectile.
- 2A goal or objective.
- 3An object of criticism or ridicule.
- 4A person, place, or thing that is frequently attacked, criticized, or ridiculed.
- 5A kind of shield:
- 6A kind of shield:
- 7A kind of shield:
- 8The pattern or arrangement of a series of hits made by a marksman on a butt or mark.
- 9The sliding crosspiece, or vane, on a leveling staff.
- 10A conspicuous disk attached to a switch lever to show its position, or for use as a signal.
- 11the number of runs that the side batting last needs to score in the final innings in order to win
- 12The tenor of a metaphor.
- 13The codomain of a function; the object at which a morphism points.
- 14The translated version of a document, or the language into which translation occurs.
- 15A person (or group of people) that a person or organization is trying to employ or to have as a customer, audience etc.
- 16A thin cut; a slice; specifically, of lamb, a piece consisting of the neck and breast joints.
- 17A tassel or pendant.
- 18A shred; a tatter.
Etymology
From Middle French targette, targuete, diminutive of targe (“light shield”), from Old French, from Frankish *targa (“buckler”), akin to Old Norse targa (“small round shield”) (whence also Old English targe, targa (“shield”)) from Proto-Germanic *targǭ (“edge”), from Proto-Indo-European *derǵʰ- (“fenced lot”). Akin to Old High German zarga (“side wall, rim”) (German Zarge (“frame”)), Spanish tarjeta (“card”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: atrget,tagret,taregt,targett,targget,targte,tarrget,traget,ttarget
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for target
Misspelling Variants of "target"
Frequency rank: #1,619 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index: