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web

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

Letters

3 characters

Language

English

word origin

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "web", 3-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 "web" 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 "web" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

web is aEnglishnoun. It means: The silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb. Pronounced /wɛb/. It ranks #1,883 in English word frequency. Often confused with wi and Wu.

Key facts for web
PropertyValue
Headwordweb
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/wɛb/
Letters3
Frequency rank#1,883
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for web is 3 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wɛb/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,883 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 22 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for web in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wi", "Wu", "wo", 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 *webʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *webaną Proto-Germanic *wabją Old English webb Middle English web English web From Middle English web, webbe, from Old English webb, from Proto-West Germanic *wabi, from Proto-Germanic *wabją (“we… 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 web, spelled W-E-B, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    The silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb.
  2. 2
    Any interconnected set of persons, places, or things, which, when diagrammed, resembles a spider's web.
  3. 3
    The part of a baseball mitt between the forefinger and thumb, the webbing.
  4. 4
    A latticed or woven structure.
  5. 5
    A tall tale with more complexity than a myth or legend.
  6. 6
    A plot or scheme.
  7. 7
    The interconnection between flanges in structural members, increasing the effective lever arm and so the load capacity of the member.
  8. 8
    The thinner vertical section of a railway rail between the top (head) and bottom (foot) of the rail.
  9. 9
    A fold of tissue connecting the toes of certain birds, or of other animals.
  10. 10
    The series of barbs implanted on each side of the shaft of a feather, whether stiff and united together by barbules, as in ordinary feathers, or soft and separate, as in downy feathers.
  11. 11
    A continuous strip of material carried by rollers during processing.
  12. 12
    A long sheet of paper which is fed from a roll into a printing press, as opposed to individual sheets of paper.
  13. 13
    A seventeenth-century unit of Rhenish glass containing 60 bunches.
  14. 14
    A band of webbing used to regulate the extension of the hood of a carriage.
  15. 15
    A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead.
  16. 16
    A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead.
  17. 17
    A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead.
  18. 18
    A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead.
  19. 19
    A thin metal sheet, plate, or strip, as of lead.
  20. 20
    A major broadcasting network.
  21. 21
    A section of a groin vault, separated by ribs.
  22. 22
    A cataract of the eye.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *webʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *webaną Proto-Germanic *wabją Old English webb Middle English web English web From Middle English web, webbe, from Old English webb, from Proto-West Germanic *wabi, from Proto-Germanic *wabją (“web”), from Proto-Germanic *webaną (“to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”). Cognates Cognate with Scots wab (“web”), North Frisian wääb (“web”), Saterland Frisian Wäb (“web”), West Frisian and Dutch web (“web”), Danish væv (“web”), Faroese vevur (“web”), Icelandic vefur (“web”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk vev (“web”), Swedish väv (“web”); also Cornish goghi (“wasps”), Irish foich, foiche, puch (“wasp”), Welsh gwchi (“drone”), Latin vespa (“wasp”), Ancient Greek ὑφή (huphḗ, “web”), ὑφαίνω (huphaínō, “to weave”) (whence Greek ανυφαίνω (anyfaíno), υφαίνω (yfaíno, “to weave”)), Albanian vej (“to weave”), Latvian lapsene (“wasp”), Lithuanian vapsvà (“wasp”), Old Prussian wobse (“wasp”), Belarusian аса́ (asá, “wasp”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, and Ukrainian оса́ (osá, “wasp”), Czech vosa (“wasp”), Polish, Slovak, and Slovene osa (“wasp”), Serbo-Croatian о̀са, òsa (“wasp”), Armenian մոզ (moz, “a kind of fly that bites horses and cattle”), Northern Kurdish moz (“hornet; wasp”), Persian بافتن (bâftan, “to weave”), Tocharian A wäp- (“to weave”), Tocharian B wāp- (“to weave”), Sanskrit उभ्नाति (ubhnāti, “to hurt, kill; to cover; fill”).

This word in other languages

Frequency rank: #1,883 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "web"?
"web" is spelled W-E-B. The IPA pronunciation is /wɛb/.
What does "web" mean?
As a noun, "web" means: The silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb.
What words are commonly confused with "web"?
"web" is commonly confused with "wi", "Wu", "wo". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "web"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "web" is /wɛb/. 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 "web"?
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *webʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *webaną Proto-Germanic *wabją Old English webb Middle English web English web From Middle English web, webbe, from Old English webb, from Proto-West Germanic *wabi, from Proto-Germanic *... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

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.