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PlainSpell

test

/tɛst/noun, verb

test is spelled T-E-S-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 155 times per million words in written English, the 657th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, test means “A challenge, trial” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of test is tests.

How many letters and syllables are in test?

Letters4: T-E-S-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing155 times per million words; the 657th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is test?

Test appears 155 times per million words in written English, the 657th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce test?

  • US /tɛst/
  • US [tʰɛst]
  • Australia [tʰest]

Test has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-test.wav, En-us-test.ogg, En-uk-a_test.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with test?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as test from its last stressed vowel (/ɛst/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: sett, stet.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of test

  • tests plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • testing participle, present
  • tested participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does test mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A challenge, trial.

  2. 2

    An examination, given often during the academic term.

  3. 3

    A session in which a product, piece of equipment, or system is examined under everyday or extreme conditions to evaluate its durability, etc.

  4. 4

    A standardised measure, consisting of one or more items.

    aptitude test

  5. 5

    A Test match.

  6. 6

    The external calciferous shell, or endoskeleton, of an echinoderm, e.g. sand dollars and sea urchins; testa.

  7. 7

    A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted for trial and refinement.

  8. 8

    Testa; seed coat.

  9. 9

    obsoleteA witness.

  10. 10

    informalslangClipping of testosterone.

verb

  1. 1

    To challenge, to put a strain on (something).

    Climbing the mountain tested our stamina.

  2. 2

    To refine (gold, silver, etc.) in a test or cupel; to subject to cupellation.

  3. 3

    To put to the proof; to prove the truth, genuineness, or quality of by experiment, or by some principle or standard; to try.

    to test the soundness of a principle

  4. 4

    To administer or assign an examination, often given during the academic term, to (somebody).

  5. 5

    To place a product or piece of equipment under everyday and/or extreme conditions and examine it for its durability, etc.

  6. 6

    To be shown to be by test.

    He tested positive for cancer.

  7. 7

    To examine or try, as by the use of some reagent.

    to test a solution by litmus paper

  8. 8

    slangTo challenge (someone) to a fight.

  9. 9

    obsoleteTo attest (a document) legally, and date it.

  10. 10

    obsoleteTo make a testament, or will.

noun

as Test
  1. 1

    A Test match.

noun

as TEST
  1. 1

    Acronym of Treadmill Exercise Stress Test.

  2. 2

    Abbreviation of testosterone.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Test in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchépreuve (challenge, trial), test, examen (academics: examination), tester, mettre à l'épreuve (to challenge)
GermanTest, Versuch (challenge, trial), Examen, Prüfung (academics: examination), fordern, abverlangen (to challenge)
Portugueseprova, teste (challenge, trial), exame (academics: examination), testar (to challenge)
Spanishprueba, probatura (challenge, trial), test (academics: examination), testear, probar (to challenge), dar (to be shown to be by test)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does test come from?

From Middle English test, teste, from Old French test, teste (“an earthen vessel, especially a pot in which metals were tried”), from Latin testum (“the lid of an earthen vessel, an earthen vessel, an earthen pot”), from *terstus, past participle of the root *tersa (“dry land”). See terra, thirst. The examination sense came via metaphor of the metallurgical sense: the way a metallurgist puts to the test their gold, a teacher may put to the test their students' knowledge. Displaced Old English afandung.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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