throw
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "throw", 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 "throw" 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 "throw" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
throw is aEnglishverb. It means: To hurl; to release (an object) with some force from one’s hands, an apparatus, etc. so that it moves rapidly through the air. Pronounced /θɹəʊ/. It ranks #1,581 in English word frequency. Often confused with tow and Troy.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | throw |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /θɹəʊ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,581 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for throw is 5 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /θɹəʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,581 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 27 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for throw, with forms such as "htrow", "thhrow", and "thorw". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "tow", "Troy", "thru", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English throwen, thrawen, from Old English þrāwan (“to turn, twist”), from Proto-West Germanic *þrāan, from Proto-Germanic *þrēaną (“to twist, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, rub by twisting, twist, turn”). Cognate with Scots … 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 throw, spelled T-H-R-O-W, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To hurl; to release (an object) with some force from one’s hands, an apparatus, etc. so that it moves rapidly through the air.
- 2To eject or cause to fall off.
- 3To move to another position or condition; to displace.
- 4To make (a pot) by shaping clay as it turns on a wheel.
- 5To deliver (the ball) illegally by straightening the bowling arm during delivery.
- 6To send (an error) to an exception-handling mechanism in order to interrupt normal processing.
- 7To intentionally lose a game.
- 8(of a game where one’s role is throwing something) To perform in a specified way in (a match).
- 9To confuse or mislead.
- 10To send hastily or desperately.
- 11To imprison.
- 12To organize an event, especially a party.
- 13To roll (a die or dice).
- 14To cause a certain number on the die or dice to be shown after rolling it.
- 15To discard.
- 16To lift or unbalance one’s opponent and then bring him back down to the ground, especially into a position behind the thrower.
- 17To change (one’s voice) in order to give the illusion that the voice is that of someone else, or coming from a different place.
- 18To show sudden emotion, especially anger.
- 19To project or send forth.
- 20To put on hastily; to spread carelessly.
- 21To twist two or more filaments of (silk, etc.) so as to form one thread; to twist together, as singles, in a direction contrary to the twist of the singles themselves; sometimes applied to the whole class of operations by which silk is prepared for the weaver.
- 22To select (a pitcher); to assign a pitcher to a given role (such as starter or reliever).
- 23To install (a bridge).
- 24To twist or turn.
- 25Synonym of pass.
- 26To deliver.
- 27Of animals: to give birth to (young).
Etymology
From Middle English throwen, thrawen, from Old English þrāwan (“to turn, twist”), from Proto-West Germanic *þrāan, from Proto-Germanic *þrēaną (“to twist, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, rub by twisting, twist, turn”). Cognate with Scots thraw (“to twist, turn, throw”), West Frisian triuwe (“to push”), Dutch draaien (“to turn”), Low German draien, dreien (“to turn (in a lathe)”), German drehen (“to turn”). Displaced warp as the word for hurling and was displaced by warp as the word for twisting.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: htrow,thhrow,thorw,throww,thrrow,thrwo,trhow,tthrow
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for throw
Misspelling Variants of "throw"
Frequency rank: #1,581 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index: