wolf
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "wolf", 4-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 "wolf" 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 "wolf" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
wolf is aEnglishnoun. It means: Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily. Pronounced /wʊlf/. It ranks #3,995 in English word frequency. Often confused with won and wow.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wolf |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /wʊlf/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #3,995 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for wolf is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wʊlf/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,995 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for wolf, with forms such as "owlf", "wlof", and "wofl". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "won", "wow", "WTF", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English wolf, from Old English wulf, ƿulf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos. Doublet of lobo and lupus. Cognates Cognate with Scots wouf, North Frisian wulew, Saterland Fris… 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 wolf, spelled W-O-L-F, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.
- 2Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.
- 3A man who makes amorous advances to many women.
- 4A wolf tone or wolf note.
- 5Any very ravenous, rapacious, or destructive person or thing; especially, want; starvation.
- 6One of the destructive, and usually hairy, larvae of several species of beetles and grain moths.
- 7A white worm which infests granaries, the larva of Nemapogon granella, a tineid moth.
- 8A wolf spider.
- 9An eating ulcer or sore. See lupus.
- 10A willying machine, to cleanse wool or willow.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English wolf, from Old English wulf, ƿulf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos. Doublet of lobo and lupus. Cognates Cognate with Scots wouf, North Frisian wulew, Saterland Frisian and German Low German Wulf, West Frisian, Alemannic German, and Dutch wolf, Bavarian bolf, bölf, Woif, Cimbrian and Mòcheno bolf, German Wolf, Luxembourgish Wollef, Vilamovian wuf, Yiddish וואָלף (volf), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk ulv, Faroese úlvur, Icelandic úlfur, Swedish ulf, ulv, Gothic 𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐍃 (wulfs); also Irish and Scottish Gaelic olc (“bad, evil”), Lepontic 𐌖𐌋𐌊𐌏𐌔 (ulkos), Manx olk (“bad”), Sanskrit वृक (vṛ́ka), Persian گرگ (gorg), Latgalian vylks, Latvian vìlks, Lithuanian vilkas, Belarusian воўк (vowk), Bulgarian вълк (vǎlk), Czech and Slovak vlk, Macedonian and Russian волк (volk), Polish wilk, Serbo-Croatian вук, vuk, Slovene volk, Ukrainian вовк (vovk), Albanian ujk, ulk, Latin lupus, Greek λύκος (lýkos), Hittite 𒉿𒀠𒆪𒉿𒀸, Lydian 𐤥𐤠𐤩𐤥𐤤 (walwe, “lion”), Tocharian B walkwe.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: owlf,wlof,wofl,wolff,wollf,wwolf
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for wolf
Misspelling Variants of "wolf"
Frequency rank: #3,995 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "wolf"?
What does "wolf" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "wolf"?
How do you pronounce "wolf"?
What is the origin of the word "wolf"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: