threshold
/ˈθɹɛʃəʊld/noun
threshold is spelled T-H-R-E-S-H-O-L-D. The wrong spelling people search most is threshhold: about 570 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 40 of all searches for the word. Threshold is a noun meaning “The lowermost part of a doorway that one crosses to enter; a sill”. The plural of threshold is thresholds.
How many letters and syllables are in threshold?
| Letters | 9: T-H-R-E-S-H-O-L-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,784th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, threshhold, about 570 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell threshold?
Threshold is spelled T-H-R-E-S-H-O-L-D. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 40 of the searches for threshold in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is threshold?
Threshold appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,784th 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 threshold?
- UK /ˈθɹɛʃəʊld/
- UK /ˈθɹɛʃˌhəʊld/
- UK [ˈθɹɛʃˌhɒʊɫd]
Threshold has 2 syllables (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: En-us-threshold.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of threshold
- thresholds plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does threshold mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The lowermost part of a doorway that one crosses to enter; a sill.
Near-synonym: doorstep
- 2
An entrance; the door or gate of a house.
- 3
Any end or boundary.
- 4
The outset of something; the point of entry, or the beginning of an action.
on the threshold of maturity
- 5
The start of the landing area of a runway.
- 6
The quantitative point at which an action is triggered, especially a lower limit.
- 7
The wage or salary at which income tax becomes due.
- 8
The point where one is mentally or physically vulnerable in response to a provocation or to other nuisances.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Threshold in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | seuil , seuil de tolérance |
| German | Schwelle, Türschwelle , Landeschwelle |
| Portuguese | umbral, soleira, limiar , cabeceira , patamar, patamares |
| Spanish | umbral, limen, tranco, tranquillo, fallanca |
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 threshold come from?
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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).