tear
/tɛə/
"tear" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tear” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,985 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #3,985
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To rend (a solid material) by holding or restraining in two places and pulling apart, whether intentionally or not; to destroy or separate.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| 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) |
Where “tear” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tear is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, 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 generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for tear, with forms such as "etar", "taer", and "tearr". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, 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, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
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… The correct English form is tear, spelled T-E-A-R.
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
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tear - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “tear”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-E-A-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tɛə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ten” - see the side-by-side comparison. tear vs ten
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.