weep
/wiːp/
"weep" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“weep” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #17,992 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #17,992
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To cry; to shed tears, especially when accompanied with sobbing or other difficulty speaking, as an expression of emotion such as sadness or joy.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | weep |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /wiːp/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #17,992 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “weep” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for weep is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wiːp/. Corpus data places it at rank #17,992 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for weep, with forms such as "ewep", "weepp", and "wep". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wet", "WWE", "Wes", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English wepen, from Old English wēpan (“to weep, complain, bewail, mourn over, deplore”), from Proto-West Germanic *wōpijan, from Proto-Germanic *wōpijaną (“to weep”), from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂b- (“to call, cry, complain”). Cognate with Sco… The correct English form is weep, spelled W-E-E-P.
Definition
- 1To cry; to shed tears, especially when accompanied with sobbing or other difficulty speaking, as an expression of emotion such as sadness or joy.
- 2To lament; to complain.
- 3To give off moisture in small quantities, e.g. due to condensation.
- 4To give off moisture in small quantities, e.g. due to condensation.
- 5To hang the branches, as if in sorrow; to be pendent; to droop; said of a plant or its branches.
- 6To weep over; to bewail.
Etymology
From Middle English wepen, from Old English wēpan (“to weep, complain, bewail, mourn over, deplore”), from Proto-West Germanic *wōpijan, from Proto-Germanic *wōpijaną (“to weep”), from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂b- (“to call, cry, complain”). Cognate with Scots weep (“to weep”), Saterland Frisian wapia (“to cry, complain”), Icelandic æpa (“to yell, shout”), Proto-Slavic *vъpiti (“to weep”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ewep,weepp,wep,wepe,wweep
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of weep - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "weep"?
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Using “weep”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-E-E-P - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /wiːp/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “wet” - see the side-by-side comparison. weep vs wet
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.