turn
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "turn", 4-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 "turn" 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 "turn" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
turn is aEnglishverb. It means: To make a non-linear physical movement. Pronounced /tɜːn/. It ranks #484 in English word frequency. Often confused with tut and tux.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | turn |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /tɜːn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #484 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for turn is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tɜːn/. Corpus data places it at rank #484 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 34 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for turn, with forms such as "trun", "tturn", and "tunr". 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, "tut", "tux", "Tyr", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *terh₁-der. Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos)bor. Latin tornus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin tornōbor. Proto-West G… 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 turn, spelled T-U-R-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To make a non-linear physical movement.
- 2To make a non-linear physical movement.
- 3To make a non-linear physical movement.
- 4To make a non-linear physical movement.
- 5To make a non-linear physical movement.
- 6To make a non-linear physical movement.
- 7To make a non-linear physical movement.
- 8To make a non-linear physical movement.
- 9To make a non-linear physical movement.
- 10To make a non-linear physical movement.
- 11To make a non-linear physical movement.
- 12To change condition or attitude.
- 13To change condition or attitude.
- 14To change condition or attitude.
- 15To change condition or attitude.
- 16To change condition or attitude.
- 17To change condition or attitude.
- 18To change condition or attitude.
- 19To change condition or attitude.
- 20To change condition or attitude.
- 21To change condition or attitude.
- 22To change condition or attitude.
- 23To change condition or attitude.
- 24To change condition or attitude.
- 25To change condition or attitude.
- 26To change one's course of action; to take a new approach.
- 27To complete.
- 28To make (money); turn a profit.
- 29Of a player, to go past an opposition player with the ball in one's control.
- 30To undergo the process of turning on a lathe.
- 31To bring down the feet of a child in the womb, in order to facilitate delivery.
- 32To invert a type of the same thickness, as a temporary substitute for any sort which is exhausted.
- 33To translate.
- 34To magically or divinely repel undead.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *terh₁-der. Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos)bor. Latin tornus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin tornōbor. Proto-West Germanic *turnēn Old English turnian ▲ Latin tornō Old French tornerbor. Middle English turnen English turn From Middle English turnen, from Old English turnian, tyrnan (“to turn, rotate, revolve”), from Proto-West Germanic *turnēn (“to turn, lathe”) (also the source of German turnen and its derivatives) and Old French torner (“to turn”), both from Latin tornāre (“to round off, turn in a lathe”), from tornus (“lathe”), from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos, “turning-lathe: a tool used for making circles”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, rub by turning, turn, twist, bore”). Cognate with Old English þrāwan (“to turn, twist, wind”), whence English throw. Displaced native Middle English wenden from Old English wendan (see wend), and Middle English trenden from Old English trendan (see trend), among several other terms.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: trun,tturn,tunr,turnn,turrn,utrn
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for turn
Misspelling Variants of "turn"
Frequency rank: #484 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "turn"?
What does "turn" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "turn"?
How do you pronounce "turn"?
What is the origin of the word "turn"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index: