Pane

How to spell pane

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce pane

What does pane mean?

1. nounA single sheet of glass set within a frame, especially in a window or door.
2. nounA flat bounded section or panel, such as a block of postage stamps or a division of a door.

Pane in a sentence

• A cricket ball cracked the largest pane in the front window.

• The collector kept an unused pane of commemorative stamps in the album.

• The glazier measured each pane before ordering replacement glass.

• The carpenter sanded the lower pane of the wooden door.

Where does pane come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin pannus, which literally meant a piece of cloth, a rag, or a panel of fabric. It passed into Old French as pan, where it referred to a section or piece of something, such as a panel of a wall or a stretch of cloth, and English borrowed it in this sense during the 1300s. Over time the idea of a flat, bounded section settled onto the rectangular sheets of glass set into a window frame, giving the modern everyday meaning. The same Latin pannus also lies behind 'panel', a close relative that still keeps the older sense of a bounded section. Its spelling trap is purely that it sounds identical to 'pain', so the silent final -e is the only thing distinguishing the sheet of glass from the feeling of hurt.

How the word is built

• pane (from Latin pannus: a piece of cloth or panel)

Words that sound like pane

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• pain: Physical hurt or emotional distress caused by injury, illness, or sorrow.