A
/eɪ̯/
"a" is a 1-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“A” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #5 in English word frequency and used as a character.
- #5
- frequency rank, English
- 1
- letter
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The first letter of the English alphabet, called a and written in the Latin script.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | A |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Character |
| IPA | /eɪ̯/ |
| Letters | 1 |
| Frequency rank | #5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “A” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for A is 1 letters long, classified as a character, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /eɪ̯/. Corpus data places it at rank #5 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The first letter of the English alphabet, called a and written in the Latin script.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for A, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "as", "at", "an", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English and Old English upper case letter A and split of Middle English and Old English upper case letter Æ. * The Old English letters A and Æ replaced the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letters ᚪ (a, “āc”) and ᚫ (æ, “æsc”), derived from the Runic letter ᚫ… The correct English form is A, spelled A.
Definition
- 1The first letter of the English alphabet, called a and written in the Latin script.
Etymology
From Middle English and Old English upper case letter A and split of Middle English and Old English upper case letter Æ. * The Old English letters A and Æ replaced the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letters ᚪ (a, “āc”) and ᚫ (æ, “æsc”), derived from the Runic letter ᚫ (a, “Ansuz”), in the 7th century.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “A”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /eɪ̯/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “as” - see the side-by-side comparison. A vs as
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.