window
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "window", 6-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 "window" 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 "window" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
window is aEnglishnoun. It means: An opening, usually covered by one or more panes of clear glass, to allow light and air from outside to enter a building or vehicle. Pronounced /ˈwɪndəʊ/. It ranks #1,680 in English word frequency. Often confused with winds and windy.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | window |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwɪndəʊ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,680 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 12 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for window is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwɪndəʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,680 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for window, with forms such as "iwndow", "widnow", and "winddow". 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 12 confusable-pair relationships, "winds", "windy", "wisdom", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English wyndowe, wyndown, from Old Norse vindauga (“window”, literally “wind-eye; wind-hole”), equivalent to wind + eye. Cognate with Scots windae and windock, Faroese vindeyga, Norwegian Bokmål vindu, Norwegian Nynorsk vindauge, Danish vindue, … 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 window, spelled W-I-N-D-O-W, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1An opening, usually covered by one or more panes of clear glass, to allow light and air from outside to enter a building or vehicle.
- 2An opening, usually covered by glass, in a shop which allows people to view the shop and its products from outside; a shop window.
- 3The shutter, casement, sash with its fittings, or other framework, which closes a window opening.
- 4A period of time when something is available or possible; a limited opportunity.
- 5Something that allows one to see through or into something
- 6A restricted range.
- 7A rectangular area on a computer terminal or screen containing some kind of user interface, displaying output and allowing input, often for a single task in a multitasking system.
- 8A figure formed of lines crossing each other.
- 9The time between first infection and detectability.
- 10Synonym of chaff (“strips of material intended to confuse radar”)
- 11A function multiplied with a signal to reduce spectral leakage when performing a Fourier transform.
- 12A fenster: a geologic or tectonic window.
Etymology
From Middle English wyndowe, wyndown, from Old Norse vindauga (“window”, literally “wind-eye; wind-hole”), equivalent to wind + eye. Cognate with Scots windae and windock, Faroese vindeyga, Norwegian Bokmål vindu, Norwegian Nynorsk vindauge, Danish vindue, archaic Swedish vindöga, Elfdalian windog. Displaced native Old English ēagþȳrel (literally “eye hole”) (the rare direct descendant is eyethurl (“window, pupil, etc.”)). The “windows” among early Germanic peoples were just unglazed holes (eyes) in the wall or roof that permitted wind to pass through .
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iwndow,widnow,winddow,windoww,windwo,winndow,winodw,wnidow,wwindow
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for window
Misspelling Variants of "window"
Frequency rank: #1,680 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: