wisdom
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "wisdom", 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 "wisdom" 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 "wisdom" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
wisdom is aEnglishnoun. It means: An element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise. Pronounced /ˈwɪzdəm/. It ranks #4,345 in English word frequency. Often confused with widow and window.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wisdom |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwɪzdəm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #4,345 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for wisdom is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwɪzdəm/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,345 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 9 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 wisdom, with forms such as "iwsdom", "widsom", and "wisddom". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "widow", "window", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English wisdom, from Old English wīsdōm (“wisdom”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīsadōm, from Proto-Germanic *wīsadōmaz (“wisdom”), corresponding to wise + -dom. Cognate with Scots wisdom, wysdom (“wisdom”), West Frisian wiisdom (“wisdom”), Dutch … 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 wisdom, spelled W-I-S-D-O-M, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1An element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise.
- 2A piece of wise advice.
- 3The discretionary use of knowledge for the greatest good.
- 4The ability to apply relevant knowledge in an insightful way, especially to different situations from that in which the knowledge was gained.
- 5The ability to make a decision based on the combination of knowledge, experience, and intuitive understanding.
- 6The ability to know and apply spiritual truths.
- 7A group of wombats.
- 8A group of owls.
- 9Ellipsis of wisdom tooth.
Etymology
From Middle English wisdom, from Old English wīsdōm (“wisdom”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīsadōm, from Proto-Germanic *wīsadōmaz (“wisdom”), corresponding to wise + -dom. Cognate with Scots wisdom, wysdom (“wisdom”), West Frisian wiisdom (“wisdom”), Dutch wijsdom (“wisdom”), German Weistum (“legal sentence”), Danish/Norwegian/Swedish visdom (“wisdom”), Icelandic vísdómur (“wisdom”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iwsdom,widsom,wisddom,wisdmo,wisdomm,wisodm,wissdom,wsidom,wwisdom
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for wisdom
Misspelling Variants of "wisdom"
Frequency rank: #4,345 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: