abide by
"abide-by" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“abide by” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To accept (a decision or law) and act in accordance with it; to conform to (a decision or law); to acquiesce to (a decision or law).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | abide by |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “abide by” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for abide by is 8 letters long, classified as a verb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for abide by, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is abide by, spelled A-B-I-D-E- -B-Y.
Definition
- 1To accept (a decision or law) and act in accordance with it; to conform to (a decision or law); to acquiesce to (a decision or law).
- 2To remain faithful to (something or someone); to adhere to (an idea or plan).
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “abide by”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-B-I-D-E- -B-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.