# test

> English word · Noun · IPA /tɛst/ · frequency rank #667

## Definitions
1. A challenge, trial.
2. A cupel or cupelling hearth in which precious metals are melted for trial and refinement.
3. An examination, given often during the academic term.
4. A session in which a product, piece of equipment, or system is examined under everyday or extreme conditions to evaluate its durability, etc.
5. A Test match.
6. The external calciferous shell, or endoskeleton, of an echinoderm, e.g. sand dollars and sea urchins; testa.
7. Testa; seed coat.
8. Judgment; distinction; discrimination.

## Etymology
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 his gold, a teacher may put to the test their students' knowledge.

## Easily confused with
- **TS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-ts)
- **TT** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tt)
- **Tex** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tex)
- **tit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tit)
- **TSA** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tsa)
- **TNT** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tnt)
- **TOS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tos)
- **tot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tot)
- **tsk** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tsk)
- **tut** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tut)
- **tse** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tse)
- **TMS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tms)
- **TPS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tps)
- **tet** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tet)
- **TSM** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tsm)
- **THT** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tht)
- **tss** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tss)
- **Tsu** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-tsu)
- **that** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-that)
- **text** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/test-vs-text)

## Common misspellings (6)
`etst`, `tesst`, `testt`, `tets`, `tset`, `ttest`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/test