Search guide
Search for a word directly, describe a more specific word set in ordinary language, or use the advanced form when you want precise control over every filter.
Start with the search box
Type a headword such as telephone. Direct word matches appear first, followed by matches inside meanings and other records. Search actions appear at the end of the suggestion list.
You can also describe an advanced search in the same box. Etymologue recognizes a fixed search grammar and translates it into visible filters. This is deterministic search syntax, not an LLM interpretation: the same phrase produces the same query, and you can inspect or remove every filter on the results page.
Natural-language combinations
Combine a source language, relationship, part of speech, meaning, and word component in one phrase. These examples are clickable:
French-derived English nouns whose definitions relate to dance.
Borrowings from Arabic filtered by meaning and prefix.
English adjectives derived from Latin and ending in the suffix -al.
Recorded downstream forms of Latin pater.
Etymology notes containing the uncertainty phrase “perhaps from.”
Recognized parts include language names; nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; relationships such as borrowed, inherited, derived, calque, and back-formation; and components such as prefix tele- or suffix -al. Quotation marks can keep a multiword meaning together.
Advanced search modes
The advanced search page exposes the underlying controls directly.
- Headword
- Exact, prefix, and fuzzy spelling matches.
- Meaning
- Words whose English definitions contain a word or phrase.
- Origin
- English words connected to a source language, source term, or relationship type.
- Component
- Words containing a prefix, suffix, root, or infix.
- Downstream forms
- Lexical descendants, derived forms, or both, with a depth limit.
- Notes
- Text preserved from etymology notes, including uncertainty and editorial phrasing.
- Combined
- Meaning, language, relationship, component, and part-of-speech filters together.
Understanding word pages
A word may have multiple entries because its part of speech, sense, or etymology differs. The graph connects recorded source forms and shows formation, inheritance, borrowing, and related assertions as distinct relationships. Selecting another entry changes the evidence and related-word panels to match it.
Language nodes may include Glottolog identifiers and language families. English word pages may also show a wordfreq label such as ≈ #3,605 in English. This is an approximate contemporary usage rank, not a claim that every English corpus has exactly the same ordering. If no standalone rank is available, the page shows an estimated “once per N words” rate instead.
Sources and limitations
The core lexical and etymological records are structured from Wiktionary data. Glottolog enriches language identity and classification, while wordfreq supplies contemporary usage frequency. These sources describe different things and remain separately attributed in the database.
Etymologies can be uncertain, disputed, or incomplete. Etymologue preserves qualifiers and evidence where available, but a graph edge should be read as a sourced lexical assertion, not necessarily settled historical fact. If you find an error or missing relationship, see the About page for contact information.