tub
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
3 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "tub", 3-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 "tub" 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 "tub" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
tub is aEnglishnoun. It means: A flat-bottomed vessel, of width similar to or greater than its height, used for storing or packing things, or for washing things in. Pronounced /tʌb/. It ranks #8,998 in English word frequency. Often confused with TV and TX.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tub |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tʌb/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #8,998 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tub is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tʌb/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,998 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for tub in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "TV", "TX", "Ty", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English tubbe, tobbe, from Middle Dutch tubbe or Middle Low German tubbe, tobbe, further etymology unknown. Considered to be unrelated to tube. 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 tub, spelled T-U-B, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A flat-bottomed vessel, of width similar to or greater than its height, used for storing or packing things, or for washing things in.
- 2The contents or capacity of such a vessel.
- 3A bathtub.
- 4A slow-moving craft.
- 5Any structure shaped like a tub, such as a certain old form of pulpit, a short broad boat, etc.
- 6A small cask.
- 7Any of various historically designated quantities of goods to be sold by the tub (butter, oysters, etc).
- 8A box or bucket in which coal or ore is sent up a shaft.
- 9A sweating in a tub; a tub fast.
- 10A corpulent or obese person.
- 11The bare body shell of an automobile (minus the doors, hood, trunk lid, fenders, etc.) which is lowered onto the chassis at the time of assembly, or in the case of modern unibody designed vehicles, is itself a monocoque around which the rest of the vehicle is built.
Etymology
From Middle English tubbe, tobbe, from Middle Dutch tubbe or Middle Low German tubbe, tobbe, further etymology unknown. Considered to be unrelated to tube.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #8,998 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index: