tunic
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "tunic", 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 "tunic" 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 "tunic" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
tunic is aEnglishnoun. It means: A garment worn over the torso, with or without sleeves, and of various lengths reaching from the hips to the ankles. Pronounced /ˈtjuːnɪk/. Often confused with Turin and Tunis.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tunic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtjuːnɪk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #26,288 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tunic is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtjuːnɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #26,288 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 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 tunic, with forms such as "tnuic", "ttunic", and "tuinc". 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, "Turin", "Tunis", "tuning", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French tunique, from Latin tunica, possibly from Semitic (compare Aramaic [script needed] (kittuna), Hebrew כותנת (kuttoneth, “coat”), English chiton); or from Etruscan. Existed in Old English as tunece; unknown if that term was lost an… 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 tunic, spelled T-U-N-I-C, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A garment worn over the torso, with or without sleeves, and of various lengths reaching from the hips to the ankles.
- 2Any covering, such as seed coat or the organ that covers a membrane.
- 3Synonym of gymslip.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French tunique, from Latin tunica, possibly from Semitic (compare Aramaic [script needed] (kittuna), Hebrew כותנת (kuttoneth, “coat”), English chiton); or from Etruscan. Existed in Old English as tunece; unknown if that term was lost and then reborrowed later. Doublet of tunica.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: tnuic,ttunic,tuinc,tunci,tunicc,tunnic,utnic
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for tunic
Misspelling Variants of "tunic"
Frequency rank: #26,288 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index: