tear
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "tear", 4-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 "tear" 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 "tear" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
tear is aEnglishverb. It means: To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate. Pronounced /tɛə/. It ranks #3,985 in English word frequency. Often confused with ten and Ted.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tear |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /tɛə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #3,985 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tear is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tɛə/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,985 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for tear, with forms such as "etar", "taer", and "tearr". 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, "ten", "Ted", "Tel", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English teren, from Old English teran (“to tear, lacerate”), from Proto-Germanic *teraną (“to tear, tear apart, rip”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to tear, tear apart”). Cognate with Scots tere, teir, tair (“to rend, lacerate, wound, rip, t… 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 tear, spelled T-E-A-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
- 2To injure as if by pulling apart.
- 3To destroy or reduce abstract unity or coherence, such as social, political or emotional.
- 4To make (an opening) with force or energy.
- 5To remove by tearing, or with sudden great force.
- 6To demolish.
- 7To become torn, especially accidentally.
- 8To move or act with great speed, energy, or violence.
- 9To smash or enter something with great force.
- 10To be interrupted midway through.
Etymology
From Middle English teren, from Old English teran (“to tear, lacerate”), from Proto-Germanic *teraną (“to tear, tear apart, rip”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to tear, tear apart”). Cognate with Scots tere, teir, tair (“to rend, lacerate, wound, rip, tear out”), Dutch teren (“to eliminate, efface, live, survive by consumption”), German zehren (“to consume, misuse”), German zerren (“to tug, rip, tear”), Danish tære (“to consume”), Swedish tära (“to fret, consume, deplete, use up”), Icelandic tæra (“to clear, corrode”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Ancient Greek δέρω (dérō, “to skin”), Albanian ther (“to slay, skin, pierce”). Doublet of tire.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: etar,taer,tearr,tera,ttear
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for tear
Misspelling Variants of "tear"
Frequency rank: #3,985 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index: