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wardrobe

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

Letters

8 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "wardrobe", 8-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 "wardrobe" 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 "wardrobe" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

wardrobe is aEnglishnoun. It means: A room for keeping clothes and armor safe, particularly a dressing room or walk-in closet beside a bedroom. Pronounced /ˈwɔːdɹəʊb/. It ranks #9,692 in English word frequency.

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Key facts for wardrobe
PropertyValue
Headwordwardrobe
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈwɔːdɹəʊb/
Letters8
Frequency rank#9,692
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for wardrobe is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwɔːdɹəʊb/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,692 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 12 documented wrong-spelling variants for wardrobe, with forms such as "awrdrobe", "wadrrobe", and "warddrobe". 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 is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English warderobe, from Old Northern French warderoube, wardereube, northern variants of Old French garderobe, from garder (“to keep safe”) + robe. Subsequently influenced by various senses of garderobe as they developed in French. Doublet of ga… 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 wardrobe, spelled W-A-R-D-R-O-B-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A room for keeping clothes and armor safe, particularly a dressing room or walk-in closet beside a bedroom.
  2. 2
    A governmental office or department in a monarchy which purchases, keeps, and cares for royal clothes.
  3. 3
    The building housing such a department.
  4. 4
    Any closet used for storing anything.
  5. 5
    A room for keeping costumes and other property safe at a theater; a prop room.
  6. 6
    The department of a theater, movie studio, etc which purchases, keeps, and cares for costumes; its staff; its room(s) or building(s).
  7. 7
    A movable cupboard or cabinet designed for storing clothes, particularly as a large piece of bedroom furniture.
  8. 8
    A tall built-in cupboard or closet for storing clothes, often including a rail for coat-hangers, and usually located in a bedroom.
  9. 9
    Anything that similarly stores or houses something.
  10. 10
    The contents of a wardrobe: an individual's entire collection of clothing.
  11. 11
    Any collection of clothing.
  12. 12
    Any collection of anything.
  13. 13
    A private chamber, particularly one used for sleeping or (euphemistic) urinating and defecating.
  14. 14
    Badger feces, particularly used in tracking game.

Etymology

From Middle English warderobe, from Old Northern French warderoube, wardereube, northern variants of Old French garderobe, from garder (“to keep safe”) + robe. Subsequently influenced by various senses of garderobe as they developed in French. Doublet of garderobe.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: awrdrobe,wadrrobe,warddrobe,wardorbe,wardrboe,wardrobbe,wardroeb,wardrrobe,warrdobe,warrdrobe,wradrobe,wwardrobe

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for wardrobe

Misspelling Variants of "wardrobe"

awrdrobe8wadrrobe8warddrobe9wardorbe8wardrboe8wardrobbe9wardroeb8wardrrobe9
Misspelling Variants of "wardrobe"

Frequency rank: #9,692 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "wardrobe"?
"wardrobe" is spelled W-A-R-D-R-O-B-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈwɔːdɹəʊb/.
What does "wardrobe" mean?
As a noun, "wardrobe" means: A room for keeping clothes and armor safe, particularly a dressing room or walk-in closet beside a bedroom.
What are common misspellings of "wardrobe"?
Common misspellings include "awrdrobe", "wadrrobe", "warddrobe", "wardorbe", "wardrboe". The correct spelling is "wardrobe".
How do you pronounce "wardrobe"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "wardrobe" is /ˈwɔːdɹəʊb/. 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 "wardrobe"?
From Middle English warderobe, from Old Northern French warderoube, wardereube, northern variants of Old French garderobe, from garder (“to keep safe”) + robe. Subsequently influenced by various senses of garderobe as they developed in French. Dou... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Nearby English words

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

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