Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell tear

What it means: A drop of clear salty liquid from the eye.

In a sentence: The tear rolled down her cheek. ▶

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as teer or tier.

Same family: tears, tearful, teary, tearfully, cry. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: The noun "tear" comes from Old English "tēar," related to similar words in German and Dutch, and ultimately from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "tear". Interestingly, the noun "tear" (from the eye) is completely unrelated in origin to the verb "to tear" (to rip something), even though they look the same in modern spelling.

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