wear out

verb

"wear-out" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“wear out” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To cause (something) to become damaged, useless, or ineffective through continued use, especially hard, heavy, or careless use.

Corpus desk

Index EN-wear-out · wear out · English

wear out · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "W" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for wear out
PropertyValue
Headwordwear out
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “wear out” in English

wear outsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

wear out is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 7 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for wear out, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is wear out, spelled W-E-A-R- -O-U-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    To cause (something) to become damaged, useless, or ineffective through continued use, especially hard, heavy, or careless use.
  2. 2
    To deteriorate or become unusable or ineffective due to continued use, exposure, or strain.
  3. 3
    To exhaust; to cause or contribute to another's exhaustion, fatigue, or weariness, as by continued strain or exertion.
  4. 4
    To become exhausted, tired, fatigued, or weary, as by continued strain or exertion.
  5. 5
    Of apparel, to display in public.
  6. 6
    Of a shirt, to not tuck into the pants; to wear in a casual manner.
  7. 7
    To punish by spanking.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how wear out appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. You're going to wear out that game if you keep playing so rough with it.
  2. He wears a pair of tennis shoes out every summer.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "wear out"?
"wear out" is spelled W-E-A-R- -O-U-T.
What does "wear out" mean?
As a verb, "wear out" means: To cause (something) to become damaged, useless, or ineffective through continued use, especially hard, heavy, or careless use.
What language does "wear out" come from?
"wear out" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list