Friend
nounA person you know well and regard with affection and trust, outside family ties.
How to spell friend
6 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce friend
What does friend mean?
- nounA person you know well and regard with affection and trust, outside family ties.
Friend in a sentence
-
My best friend moved away last year.
-
A good friend is worth their weight in gold.
Where does friend come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a native English word descending from the Old English freond, which meant a loved one or favourer. It began life as the present participle of the verb freon, meaning 'to love' or 'to hold dear', so a friend was literally 'one who is loving'. The same Germanic root sits behind the modern word 'free' and the German Freund, all tracing back to ideas of affection and of being among one's own people. The stubborn 'i' before the 'e' is the classic spelling trap, since the word is pronounced as if it rhymed with 'end'; remembering that there is a 'fri' at the start, as in the now-archaic 'frith' meaning peace, can help anchor it. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable since the medieval period even as the pronunciation drifted away from it.
How the word is built
- friend (from Old English freond: one who loves or favours)
Fix your spelling for good.
Spelling Garden finds the words you personally get wrong, plants them in a garden, and brings each one back just before you would have forgotten it.
Just five minutes a day is all it takes to fix your spelling.