abaft
/əˈbɑːft/
"abaft" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“abaft” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a preposition. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Behind; toward the stern relative to some other object or position; aft of.
Corpus desk
Index EN-abaft · abaft · English
abaft · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | abaft |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | /əˈbɑːft/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “abaft” in English
Rare enough to double-check
abaft is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as apreposition, transcribed /əˈbɑːft/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Behind; toward the stern relative to some other object or position; aft of.".
No misspelling variants are generated for abaft in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English obaft, baft, baften, from Old English beæftan; be (“by”) (modern English by) + æftan (“behind”) (modern English after). See also aft. The correct English form is abaft, spelled A-B-A-F-T.
Definition
- 1Behind; toward the stern relative to some other object or position; aft of.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how abaft appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The captain stood abaft the wheelhouse.
[…] two drunken Turkes, that were in the Frigot with twelue others, discharged two Calieuers, with which they killed two Souldiours, that stood abaft our Gally.
Etymology
From Middle English obaft, baft, baften, from Old English beæftan; be (“by”) (modern English by) + æftan (“behind”) (modern English after). See also aft.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.