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PlainSpell

welfare

/ˈwɛlˌfɛɚ/noun, verb

welfare is spelled W-E-L-F-A-R-E. The wrong spelling people search most is wellfare: about 200 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 17 of all searches for the word. Welfare is a noun meaning “Health, safety, happiness and prosperity; well-being in any respect”. The plural of welfare is welfares.

How many letters and syllables are in welfare?

Letters7: W-E-L-F-A-R-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing27 times per million words; the 3,422nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, wellfare, about 200 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell welfare?

Welfare is spelled W-E-L-F-A-R-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 17 of the searches for welfare in either form.

welfarethe right spelling3,280 searches a month
wellfarean extra l200 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is welfare?

Welfare appears 27 times per million words in written English, the 3,422nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce welfare?

  • UK /ˈwɛlˌfɛə/
  • US /ˈwɛlˌfɛɚ/

Welfare has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-welfare.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of welfare

  • welfares plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • welfaring participle, present
  • welfared participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does welfare mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Health, safety, happiness and prosperity; well-being in any respect.

  2. 2

    USinformalShortened form of "welfare spending", "welfare payments", or "welfare assistance".

verb

  1. 1

    To provide with welfare or aid.

    welfaring the poor

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate welfare?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of welfare: MWR.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Welfare in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbien-être m| (health, safety, well-being, happiness and…), aide sociale (aid, provided by a government, etc)
GermanWohlergehen, Wohlfahrt (health, safety, well-being, happiness and…), Sozialhilfe (aid, provided by a government, etc)
Portuguesebem-estar (health, safety, well-being, happiness and…), segurança social (aid, provided by a government, etc)
Spanishbienestar (health, safety, well-being, happiness and…), seguridad social (aid, provided by a government, etc)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does welfare come from?

From Middle English welefare, probably from the Old English phrase wel faran (“to fare well, get along successfully, prosper”) (cognate with Middle Dutch welvare (“welfare”), Middle Low German wolvare (“welfare”), Middle High German wolvar, wolfar (“welfare”)). Equivalent to well + fare. Compare also West Frisian wolfeart, Dutch welvaart, German Wohlfahrt, Old Norse velferð (whence Swedish välfärd (“welfare”)).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after welfare