abbey
/ˈæbi/noun
abbey is spelled A-B-B-E-Y: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 7.6 times per million words in written English, the 8,542nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Abbey, the name). As a noun, abbey means “The office or dominion of an abbot or abbess” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of abbey is abbeys.
How many letters and syllables are in abbey?
| Letters | 5: A-B-B-E-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 7.6 times per million words; the 8,542nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is abbey?
Abbey appears 7.6 times per million words in written English, the 8,542nd most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Abbey, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce abbey?
- US /ˈæbi/
- British /ˈabɪj/
- /ˈabi/
Abbey has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-abbey.ogg, En-ca-abbey.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with abbey
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: Abby (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: abby.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with abbey?
3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as abbey from its last stressed vowel (/æbi/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of abbey
- abbeys plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does abbey mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The office or dominion of an abbot or abbess.
- 2
A monastery or society of people, secluded from the world and devoted to religion and celibacy, which is headed by an abbot or abbess; also, the monastic building or buildings.
Near-synonym: convent
- 3
The church of a monastery.
- 4
BritishA residence that was previously an abbatial building.
- 5
The abele or white poplar (Populus alba).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate abbey?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of abbey: abb..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Abbey in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | abbaye |
| German | Abtei , Klosterkirche |
| Portuguese | abadia |
| Spanish | abadía |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does abbey come from?
From A.D. 1250 in Middle English abbey, abbeye (“convent headed by an abbot”) (compare archaic English abbaye), itself borrowed from Old French abaïe, abbaïe, abeïe, abbeïe (Modern French abbaye) from Late Latin or Ecclesiastical Latin abbātia, from Classical Latin abbās (“abbot”). Doublet of abbacy and Opatija. See abbot.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).