English Word Reference Free

touch

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Browse Words → Compare Confusables

By · Reviewed against Wiktionary & Hunspell sources ·

Letters

5 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

open dictionary

Access

Free

no sign-up needed

Detailed reference entry for the English word "touch", 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 "touch" 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 "touch" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

touch is aEnglishverb. It means: Primarily physical senses. Pronounced /tʌt͡ʃ/. It ranks #1,324 in English word frequency. Often confused with TUC and tour.

Key facts for touch
PropertyValue
Headwordtouch
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/tʌt͡ʃ/
Letters5
Frequency rank#1,324
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of touch in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for touch is 5 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tʌt͡ʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,324 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 35 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for touch, with forms such as "otuch", "tocuh", and "toucch". 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, "TUC", "tour", "tuck", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English touchen, tochen, from Old French tochier (“to touch”) (whence Modern French toucher; compare French doublet toquer (“to offend, bother, harass”)), from Vulgar Latin *tuccō (“to knock, strike, offend”), from Frankish *tukkōn (“to knock, s… 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 touch, spelled T-O-U-C-H, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Primarily physical senses.
  2. 2
    Primarily physical senses.
  3. 3
    Primarily physical senses.
  4. 4
    Primarily physical senses.
  5. 5
    Primarily physical senses.
  6. 6
    Primarily physical senses.
  7. 7
    Primarily physical senses.
  8. 8
    Primarily physical senses.
  9. 9
    Primarily physical senses.
  10. 10
    Primarily physical senses.
  11. 11
    Primarily physical senses.
  12. 12
    Primarily physical senses.
  13. 13
    Primarily physical senses.
  14. 14
    Primarily physical senses.
  15. 15
    Primarily physical senses.
  16. 16
    Primarily physical senses.
  17. 17
    Primarily physical senses.
  18. 18
    Primarily non-physical senses.
  19. 19
    Primarily non-physical senses.
  20. 20
    Primarily non-physical senses.
  21. 21
    Primarily non-physical senses.
  22. 22
    Primarily non-physical senses.
  23. 23
    Primarily non-physical senses.
  24. 24
    Primarily non-physical senses.
  25. 25
    Primarily non-physical senses.
  26. 26
    Primarily non-physical senses.
  27. 27
    Primarily non-physical senses.
  28. 28
    Primarily non-physical senses.
  29. 29
    Primarily non-physical senses.
  30. 30
    To try; to prove, as with a touchstone.
  31. 31
    To mark or delineate with touches; to add a slight stroke to with the pencil or brush.
  32. 32
    To infect; to affect slightly.
  33. 33
    To strike; to manipulate; to play on.
  34. 34
    To perform, as a tune; to play.
  35. 35
    To influence by impulse; to impel forcibly.

Etymology

From Middle English touchen, tochen, from Old French tochier (“to touch”) (whence Modern French toucher; compare French doublet toquer (“to offend, bother, harass”)), from Vulgar Latin *tuccō (“to knock, strike, offend”), from Frankish *tukkōn (“to knock, strike, touch”), from Proto-Germanic *tukkōną (“to tug, grab, grasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to draw, pull, lead”). Largely displaced native Middle English rinen, from Old English hrīnan (whence Modern English rine). Doublet of tuck. Cognates Cognate with Old High German zochhōn, zuhhōn (“to grasp, take, seize, snatch”) (whence German zucken (“to jerk, flinch”)), German Low German tucken, tocken (“to fidget, twitch, pull up, entice, throb, knock, repeatedly tap”), Middle Dutch tocken, tucken (“to touch, entice”) (whence Dutch tokkelen (“to strum, pluck”)), Old English tucian, tūcian (“to disturb, mistreat”) (whence Modern English tuck). Compare also Old High German tokkōn, tockōn (“to abut, collide”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian cek (“to touch”), Old Church Slavonic тъкнѫти (tŭknǫti). More at tuck, take.

This word in other languages

Spanish(Español)Portuguese(Português)French(Français)German(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: otuch,tocuh,toucch,touchh,touhc,ttouch,tuoch

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for touch

Misspelling Variants of "touch"

otuch5tocuh5toucch6touchh6touhc5ttouch6tuoch5
Misspelling Variants of "touch"

Frequency rank: #1,324 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "touch"?
"touch" is spelled T-O-U-C-H. The IPA pronunciation is /tʌt͡ʃ/.
What does "touch" mean?
As a verb, "touch" means: Primarily physical senses.
What words are commonly confused with "touch"?
"touch" is commonly confused with "TUC", "tour", "tuck". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "touch"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "touch" is /tʌt͡ʃ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "touch"?
From Middle English touchen, tochen, from Old French tochier (“to touch”) (whence Modern French toucher; compare French doublet toquer (“to offend, bother, harass”)), from Vulgar Latin *tuccō (“to knock, strike, offend”), from Frankish *tukkōn (“t... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index:

All "T" wordsABCDEFGHIJKL

Explore PlainSpell

English Words

Browse all English

Words: T

Browse "t" words

Confusable Pairs

Commonly confused words

Spelling Guides

Tips & reference

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.