tempo
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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5 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "tempo", 5-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 "tempo" 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 "tempo" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
tempo is aEnglishnoun. It means: A frequency or rate. Pronounced /ˈtɛm.pəʊ/. Often confused with Teo and typo.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tempo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtɛm.pəʊ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #10,621 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tempo is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtɛm.pəʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,621 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 8 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 tempo, with forms such as "etmpo", "temmpo", and "temop". 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 11 confusable-pair relationships, "Teo", "typo", "tempt", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Italian tempo, from Latin tempus (“time”). Doublet of tense. (truck or cargo van): A genericized trademark, originally associated with the manufacturer Vidal & Sohn Tempo-Werke GmbH. 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 tempo, spelled T-E-M-P-O, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A frequency or rate.
- 2A move which is part of one's own plan or strategy and forces, e.g. by means of a check or attacking a piece, the opponent to make a move which is not bad but of no use (the player gains a tempo, the opponent loses a tempo), or equivalently a player achieves the same result in fewer moves by one approach rather than another.
- 3The timing advantage of being on lead, thus being first to initiate a strategy to develop tricks for one's side.
- 4The timing of a particular event – earlier or later than in an alternative situation (as in chess example)
- 5The number of beats per minute in a piece of music; also, an indicative term denoting approximate rate of speed in written music (examples: allegro, andante)
- 6The steady pace set by the frontmost riders.
- 7A small truck or cargo van with three or four wheels, commonly used for commercial transport and deliveries (particularly in Asian and African countries).
- 8A rapid rate of play by the offense resulting from reducing the amount of time which elapses after one play ends and the next starts.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian tempo, from Latin tempus (“time”). Doublet of tense. (truck or cargo van): A genericized trademark, originally associated with the manufacturer Vidal & Sohn Tempo-Werke GmbH.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: etmpo,temmpo,temop,temppo,tepmo,tmepo,ttempo
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for tempo
Misspelling Variants of "tempo"
Frequency rank: #10,621 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index: