threshold
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
9 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "threshold", 9-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 "threshold" 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 "threshold" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
threshold is aEnglishnoun. It means: The lowermost part of a doorway that one crosses to enter; a sill. Pronounced /ˈθɹeʃəʊld/. It ranks #6,845 in English word frequency. Often confused with threefold.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | threshold |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈθɹeʃəʊld/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #6,845 |
| Misspellings tracked | 15 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for threshold is 9 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈθɹeʃəʊld/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,845 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 15 documented wrong-spelling variants for threshold, with forms such as "htreshold", "thershold", and "thhreshold". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "threefold", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English threschwolde, threscholde, from Old English þresċold, þerxold, þrexwold (“doorsill, entryway”), from Proto-Germanic *þreskudlaz, *þreskūþlijaz, *þreskwaþluz, from Proto-Germanic *þreskaną, *þreskwaną (“to thresh, (originally) to tread”),… 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 threshold, spelled T-H-R-E-S-H-O-L-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The lowermost part of a doorway that one crosses to enter; a sill.
- 2An entrance; the door or gate of a house.
- 3Any end or boundary.
- 4The outset of something; the point of entry, or the beginning of an action.
- 5The start of the landing area of a runway.
- 6The quantitative point at which an action is triggered, especially a lower limit.
- 7The wage or salary at which income tax becomes due.
- 8The point where one is mentally or physically vulnerable in response to a provocation or to other nuisances.
Etymology
From Middle English threschwolde, threscholde, from Old English þresċold, þerxold, þrexwold (“doorsill, entryway”), from Proto-Germanic *þreskudlaz, *þreskūþlijaz, *þreskwaþluz, from Proto-Germanic *þreskaną, *þreskwaną (“to thresh, (originally) to tread”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, turn”). Cognate with Low German Drüssel (“threshold”), dialectal German Drischaufel, Drissufle, Trüschübel (“threshold”), Danish tærskel (“threshold”), Norwegian terskel (“threshold”), Swedish tröskel (“threshold”), dialectal Swedish träskvald (“threshold”), Icelandic þröskuldur (“threshold”). Pronunciations such as “thresh-hold” are un-etymological and result from analogy with hold.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: htreshold,thershold,thhreshold,threhsold,threshhold,threshlod,threshodl,thresholdd,thresholld,thresohld,thresshold,thrreshold,thrsehold,trheshold,tthreshold
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for threshold
Misspelling Variants of "threshold"
Frequency rank: #6,845 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index: