Meanings
plural freckles
- A small brownish or reddish pigmentation spot on the surface of the skin.
Steve has brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles on his cheeks and nose.
2 more examples
The rabbits came out from their burrows to peep, / The wind whispered, "Hush! little Jane's gone to sleep!" / And the spiders came spinning a curtain of lace, / Lest the sun should make freckles on Jane's pretty face.
c. 1920s-1930s, Charlotte Druitt Cole, Runaway JaneNurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested.
1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171 - Any small spot which has a different colour from its background.
- AustraliaA small sweet consisting of a flattish mound of chocolate covered in hundreds and thousands.
- AustraliaslangThe anus.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA small brownish or reddish pigmentation spot on the surface of the skin.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*sp(h)er(e)g-, *(s)pregʰ-“to sprinkle, strew”
- Proto-Germanic*sprekalą“freckle”
- Old Norsefreknur pl
- Middle Englishfracle
- Englishfreckle
The noun is derived from Late Middle English fracle, frekel, frekle (“freckle; pimple; fleck of colour in a stone”), a variant of frakne, freken (“freckle; other skin blemish”) (whence frecken (“(obsolete except UK, dialectal) freckle”)), from Old Norse freknur pl (compare Faroese frøknur, Danish fregner, Swedish fräknar), an s-less variant of Proto-Germanic *sprekalą (“freckle”) (compare Middle High German spreckel, dialectal Norwegian sprekla), from Proto-Indo-European *sp(h)er(e)g-, *(s)pregʰ- (“to sprinkle, strew”). Doublet of spark, sprack, and spry. The verb is derived from the noun. cognates * Albanian fruth (“measles”) * Old English sprecel
More words from Middle English, Old Norse, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans sproet
- sproetsmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Ancient Greek ἔφηλις
- ἔφηλις (éphēlis)small pigmentation spot on the skin
Arabic نَمَش
- نَمَش (namaš)small pigmentation spot on the skin
Basque orin
- orinsmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Bulgarian луничка
- луничка (lunička)small pigmentation spot on the skin
Catalan piga
- pigasmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Chinese Mandarin 雀斑, 斑點 /斑点
- 雀斑 (quèbān)small pigmentation spot on the skin
- 斑點 /斑点 (bāndiǎn)small pigmentation spot on the skin
Czech piha
- pihasmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Danish fregne
- fregnesmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Dutch sproet
- sproetsmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Esperanto lentugo
- lentugosmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Estonian tedretähn, tedretäht
- tedretähnsmall pigmentation spot on the skin
- tedretähtsmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Finnish kesakko, pisama
- kesakkosmall pigmentation spot on the skin
- pisamasmall pigmentation spot on the skin
- teerenpilkkusmall pigmentation spot on the skin
- täpläany small spot
- pilkkuany small spot
- pisamoittaato cover (someone or something) with freckles
- täplittääto cover (someone or something) with freckles
- pisamoituato become covered with freckles
- täplittyäto become covered with freckles
French tache de rousseur
- tache de rousseursmall pigmentation spot on the skin
German Sommersprosse, Fleckchen
- Sommersprossesmall pigmentation spot on the skin
- Fleckchenany small spot
Greek φακίδα
- φακίδα (fakída)small pigmentation spot on the skin
Hebrew נֶמֶשׁ
- נֶמֶשׁ (némesh)small pigmentation spot on the skin
Hungarian szeplő
- szeplősmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Icelandic frekna
- freknasmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Indonesian bintik
- bintiksmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Irish breicne
- breicnesmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Italian lentiggine, efelide
- lentigginesmall pigmentation spot on the skin
- efelidesmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Japanese 雀斑, そばかす
- 雀斑 (sobakasu)small pigmentation spot on the skin
- そばかす (sobakasu)small pigmentation spot on the skin
Korean 주근깨
- 주근깨 (jugeunkkae)small pigmentation spot on the skin
Latin lentigo, lenticula
- lentigosmall pigmentation spot on the skin
- lenticulasmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Latvian vasaras raibums
- vasaras raibumssmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Lithuanian strazdana
- strazdanasmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Norwegian Bokmål fregne
- fregnesmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Persian کک و مک
- کک و مک (kak-o-mak)small pigmentation spot on the skin
Polish pieg
- piegsmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Portuguese sarda, cobrir de sardas
- sardasmall pigmentation spot on the skin
- cobrir de sardasto cover (someone or something) with freckles
Romanian pistrui
- pistruismall pigmentation spot on the skin
Russian весну́шка
- весну́шка (vesnúška)small pigmentation spot on the skin
Scottish Gaelic breac-sheunain
- breac-sheunainsmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Slovak peha
- pehasmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Spanish peca, efélide
- pecasmall pigmentation spot on the skin
- efélidesmall pigmentation spot on the skin
- lentigosmall pigmentation spot on the skin
- tener pecato become covered with freckles
Swedish fräkne
- fräknesmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Tagalog pekas
- pekassmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Thai กระ
- กระ (grà)small pigmentation spot on the skin
Turkish çil
- çilsmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Ukrainian весня́нка, ластови́нка
- весня́нка (vesnjánka)small pigmentation spot on the skin
- ластови́нка (lastovýnka)small pigmentation spot on the skin
Vietnamese tàn nhang
- tàn nhangsmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Welsh brych, sbot haf
- brychsmall pigmentation spot on the skin
- sbot hafsmall pigmentation spot on the skin
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with freckle
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
freckle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/freckle
“freckle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/freckle. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “freckle,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/freckle.
Source: freckle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.