Tell me more ×
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 0 down vote favorite

Is "volumn" a correct word? or there is only "volume" only, and "volumn" is just a spelling mistake?

Cannot find volumn on any online dictionary.

share|improve this question
1  
If you can't find it in any dictionary, then there is no justification to use it and you can safely assume it's a mistake. – Andrew Leach Mar 7 at 7:00
1  
3,220,000 results for volumn on GoogleSearch; 27,600 results for GoogleBooks. – Kris Mar 7 at 7:39
@Kris: Did you find any instances among those millions (or thousands) of search results that would lead you to believe this is a correct word for the 21st century? If so, I'd like to know. I think it's an antiquated spelling at best. Raw totals don't tell the full answer. – J.R. Mar 7 at 10:24
@JR Antiquated is a valid answer. You should have posted that as an answer. – Kris Mar 7 at 11:23

closed as general reference by jwpat7, Andrew Leach, coleopterist, Rory Alsop, Pitarou Mar 7 at 7:24

This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information. See the Help Center for guidance on how to improve it.

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote

I've never heard of "volumn," and a few searches turn up nothing except several people who claim to have seen this word in use. Here a couple of researchers took on the task of finding it in the OED, but they couldn't. I think it's safe to say not a proper word.

It's quite possible for Google books to return instances of a word that are really typos or scanning errors, like this:

enter image description here

although sometimes the scanned book unmistakeably contains the word in question:

enter image description here

That latter example, though, was published in 1906. If volumn was once an acceptable alternate spelling of volume, it appears to have gone out of vogue, to the point where the dictionary editors don't want to acknowledge it in current editions.

share|improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.