Abel
/ˈeɪ.bl̩/
"abel" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Abel” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #15,314 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #15,314
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 3
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The son of Adam and Eve who was killed by his brother Cain.
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 | Abel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈeɪ.bl̩/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #15,314 |
| Misspellings tracked | 3 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Abel” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Abel is 4 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈeɪ.bl̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #15,314 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for Abel, with forms such as "abbel", "abell", and "aebl". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "AL", "AE", "are", 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 Abel, from Old English Ābel, from Latin Abel, from Ancient Greek Ἅβελ (Hábel), from Biblical Hebrew הֶבֶל (Héḇel, “Abel”), possibly from the homonymous word הֶבֶל (heḇel, “breath, vapor; vanity”) or from Akkadian 𒌉𒍑 (ablu, “son”). The correct English form is Abel, spelled A-B-E-L.
Definition
- 1The son of Adam and Eve who was killed by his brother Cain.
- 2A male given name from Hebrew.
- 3A surname originating as a patronymic.
- 4An unincorporated community in Cleburne County, Alabama, United States, named after the biblical Abel.
Etymology
From Middle English Abel, from Old English Ābel, from Latin Abel, from Ancient Greek Ἅβελ (Hábel), from Biblical Hebrew הֶבֶל (Héḇel, “Abel”), possibly from the homonymous word הֶבֶל (heḇel, “breath, vapor; vanity”) or from Akkadian 𒌉𒍑 (ablu, “son”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abbel,abell,aebl
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Abel - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “Abel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-B-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈeɪ.bl̩/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “AL” - see the side-by-side comparison. Abel vs AL
- 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.