above
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "above", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "above" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "above" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
above is aEnglishprep. It means: Physically over; on top of; worn on top of, said of clothing. Pronounced /əˈbʌv/. It ranks #629 in English word frequency. Often confused with ave and ABV.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | above |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep |
| IPA | /əˈbʌv/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #629 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for above is 5 letters long, classified as aprep, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈbʌv/. Corpus data places it at rank #629 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for above, with forms such as "abbove", "aboev", and "abovve". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ave", "ABV", "aloe", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ud-s-? Proto-Indo-European *h₂u-s-? Proto-Germanic *uz- Proto-West Germanic *uʀ- Old English ar- Old English ā- Proto-West Germanic *bi- Proto-Indo-European *upó Proto-Germanic *ub Proto-Germanic *-anē Proto-Germanic *uba… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is above, spelled A-B-O-V-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Physically over; on top of; worn on top of, said of clothing.
- 2In or to a higher place; higher than; on or over the upper surface.
- 3Farther north than.
- 4Rising; appearing out of reach height-wise.
- 5Higher than; superior to in any respect; surpassing; higher in measure, degree, volume, or pitch, etc. than; out of reach; not exposed to; not likely to be affected by; incapable of negative actions or thoughts.
- 6Higher in rank, status, or position.
- 7In addition to; besides.
- 8Surpassing in number or quantity; more than.
- 9In preference to.
- 10Too proud to stoop to; averse to; disinclined towards;
- 11Beyond; on the other side.
- 12Upstage of.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ud-s-? Proto-Indo-European *h₂u-s-? Proto-Germanic *uz- Proto-West Germanic *uʀ- Old English ar- Old English ā- Proto-West Germanic *bi- Proto-Indo-European *upó Proto-Germanic *ub Proto-Germanic *-anē Proto-Germanic *ubanē Proto-West Germanic *obanā Proto-West Germanic *biobanā Old English bufan Old English abūfan Middle English aboven English above From Middle English above, aboven, abuven, from Old English ābufan, onbufan, from on (“on”) + bufan (“over”), (akin to Icelandic ofan (“from above”), Middle Dutch bōven, Old Frisian bova, Middle High German bobene) from bī (“by”) + ufan (“over”); also cognate with Danish oven, Dutch boven, German oben, Swedish ovan, Old Saxon oƀan, Old High German obana. The preposition, the adjective, and the noun derive from the adverb.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abbove,aboev,abovve,abvoe,aobve,baove
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for above
Misspelling Variants of "above"
Frequency rank: #629 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index: