wedge
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "wedge", 5-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 "wedge" 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 "wedge" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
wedge is aEnglishnoun. It means: One of the simple machines; a piece of material, such as metal or wood, thick at one edge and tapered to a thin edge at the other for insertion in a narrow crevice, used for splitting, tightening, ... Pronounced /wɛd͡ʒ/. Often confused with wee and were.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wedge |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /wɛd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #12,715 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 14 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for wedge is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wɛd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,715 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 21 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for wedge, with forms such as "ewdge", "wdege", and "weddge". 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 14 confusable-pair relationships, "wee", "were", "wide", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English wegge (“wedge”), from Old English weċġ (“wedge”), from Proto-West Germanic *wagi, from Proto-Germanic *wagjaz. 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 wedge, spelled W-E-D-G-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1One of the simple machines; a piece of material, such as metal or wood, thick at one edge and tapered to a thin edge at the other for insertion in a narrow crevice, used for splitting, tightening, securing, or levering.
- 2A piece (of food, metal, wood etc.) having this shape.
- 3Something that creates a division, gap or distance between things.
- 4A five-sided polyhedron with a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.
- 5A voussoir, one of the wedge-shaped blocks forming an arch or vault.
- 6A flank of cavalry acting to split some portion of an opposing army, charging in an inverted V formation.
- 7A group of geese, swans, or other birds when they are in flight in a V formation.
- 8A type of iron club used for short, high trajectories.
- 9One of a pair of wedge-heeled shoes.
- 10An ingot.
- 11Silver or items made of silver collectively.
- 12A quantity of money.
- 13A sandwich made on a long, cylindrical roll.
- 14One of the basic elements that make up cuneiform writing, a single triangular impression made with the corner of a reed stylus.
- 15Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation.
- 16Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation.
- 17Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation.
- 18Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation.
- 19A barometric ridge; an elongated region of high atmospheric pressure between two low-pressure areas.
- 20A wedge tornado.
- 21A market trend characterized by a contracting range in prices coupled with an upward trend in prices (a rising wedge) or a downward trend in prices (a falling wedge).
Etymology
From Middle English wegge (“wedge”), from Old English weċġ (“wedge”), from Proto-West Germanic *wagi, from Proto-Germanic *wagjaz.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ewdge,wdege,weddge,wedeg,wedgge,wegde,wwedge
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for wedge
Misspelling Variants of "wedge"
Frequency rank: #12,715 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: