type
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "type", 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 "type" 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 "type" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
type is aEnglishnoun. It means: A grouping based on shared characteristics; a class. Pronounced /taɪp/. It ranks #546 in English word frequency. Often confused with Tyr and tyre.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | type |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /taɪp/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #546 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for type is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /taɪp/. Corpus data places it at rank #546 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 15 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 type, with forms such as "tpye", "ttype", and "tyep". 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, "Tyr", "tyre", "typo", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English type (“symbol, figure, emblem”), from Latin typus, from Ancient Greek τύπος (túpos, “mark, impression, type”), from τύπτω (túptō, “I strike, beat”). 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 type, spelled T-Y-P-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A grouping based on shared characteristics; a class.
- 2An individual considered typical of its class, one regarded as typifying a certain profession, environment, etc.
- 3An individual that represents the ideal for its class; an embodiment.
- 4A letter or character used for printing, historically a cast or engraved block.
- 5A letter or character used for printing, historically a cast or engraved block.
- 6Something, often a specimen, selected as an objective anchor to connect a scientific name to a taxon; this need not be representative or typical.
- 7Preferred sort of person; sort of person that one is attracted to.
- 8A blood group.
- 9A word that occurs in a text or corpus irrespective of how many times it occurs, as opposed to a token.
- 10An event or person that prefigures or foreshadows a later event - commonly an Old Testament event linked to Christian times.
- 11A tag attached to variables and values used in determining which kinds of value can be used in which situations.
- 12The original object, or class of objects, scene, face, or conception, which becomes the subject of a copy; especially, the design on the face of a medal or a coin.
- 13A simple compound, used as a mode or pattern to which other compounds are conveniently regarded as being related, and from which they may be actually or theoretically derived.
- 14A part of the partition of the object domain of a logical theory (which due to the existence of such partition, would be called a typed theory). (Note: this corresponds to the notion of "data type" in computing theory.)
- 15A symbol, emblem, or example of something.
Etymology
From Middle English type (“symbol, figure, emblem”), from Latin typus, from Ancient Greek τύπος (túpos, “mark, impression, type”), from τύπτω (túptō, “I strike, beat”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: tpye,ttype,tyep,typpe,tyype,ytpe
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for type
Misspelling Variants of "type"
Frequency rank: #546 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index: