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workday

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

7 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "workday", 7-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 "workday" 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 "workday" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

workday is aEnglishnoun. It means: Any of the days of a week on which work is done; any day in a workweek. The five workdays in many countries are usually Monday to Friday (and are defined as such in official and legal usage even th... Often confused with worldly and workman.

Key facts for workday
PropertyValue
Headwordworkday
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters7
Frequency rank#31,414
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of workday in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for workday is 7 letters long, classified as anoun. Corpus data places it at rank #31,414 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for workday, with forms such as "owrkday", "wokrday", and "wordkay". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "worldly", "workman", "wordy", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English werkdai, werkedei, werkedai, from Old English weorcdæġ (“workday”), equivalent to work + day. Cognate with West Frisian wurkdei (“workday”), Dutch werkdag (“workday”), German Low German Warkdag (“workday”), German Werktag (“workday”). Se… 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 workday, spelled W-O-R-K-D-A-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Any of the days of a week on which work is done; any day in a workweek. The five workdays in many countries are usually Monday to Friday (and are defined as such in official and legal usage even though many people work on weekends).
  2. 2
    That part of a day in which work is done.

Etymology

From Middle English werkdai, werkedei, werkedai, from Old English weorcdæġ (“workday”), equivalent to work + day. Cognate with West Frisian wurkdei (“workday”), Dutch werkdag (“workday”), German Low German Warkdag (“workday”), German Werktag (“workday”). See also workaday.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: owrkday,wokrday,wordkay,workady,workdayy,workdday,workdya,workkday,worrkday,wrokday,wworkday

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for workday

Misspelling Variants of "workday"

owrkday7wokrday7wordkay7workady7workdayy8workdday8workdya7workkday8
Misspelling Variants of "workday"

Frequency rank: #31,414 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "workday"?
"workday" is spelled W-O-R-K-D-A-Y.
What does "workday" mean?
As a noun, "workday" means: Any of the days of a week on which work is done; any day in a workweek. The five workdays in many countries are usually Monday to Friday (and are defined as such in official and legal usage even th...
What words are commonly confused with "workday"?
"workday" is commonly confused with "worldly", "workman", "wordy". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What is the origin of the word "workday"?
From Middle English werkdai, werkedei, werkedai, from Old English weorcdæġ (“workday”), equivalent to work + day. Cognate with West Frisian wurkdei (“workday”), Dutch werkdag (“workday”), German Low German Warkdag (“workday”), German Werktag (“wor... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.