abyss
/əˈbɪs/
"abyss" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“abyss” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #17,066 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #17,066
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 8
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Hell; the bottomless pit; primeval chaos; a confined subterranean ocean.
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 | abyss |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈbɪs/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #17,066 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “abyss” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for abyss is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈbɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #17,066 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for abyss, with forms such as "abbyss", "absys", and "abys". 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 8 confusable-pair relationships, "ass", "amiss", "amass", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English abissus, from Late Latin abyssus (“a bottomless gulf”), from Ancient Greek ἄβυσσος (ábussos, “bottomless”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + βυσσός (bussós, “deep place”), from βυθός (buthós, “deep place”). Displaced native Old English neowolnes. The correct English form is abyss, spelled A-B-Y-S-S.
Definition
- 1Hell; the bottomless pit; primeval chaos; a confined subterranean ocean.
- 2A bottomless or unfathomed depth, gulf, or chasm; hence, any deep, immeasurable; any void space.
- 3Anything infinite, immeasurable, or profound.
- 4Moral depravity; vast intellectual or moral depth.
- 5An impending catastrophic happening.
- 6The center of an escutcheon; fess point.
- 7The abyssal zone.
- 8A difference, especially a large difference, between groups.
Etymology
From Middle English abissus, from Late Latin abyssus (“a bottomless gulf”), from Ancient Greek ἄβυσσος (ábussos, “bottomless”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + βυσσός (bussós, “deep place”), from βυθός (buthós, “deep place”). Displaced native Old English neowolnes.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abbyss,absys,abys,abyyss,aybss,bayss
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of abyss - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “abyss”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-B-Y-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈbɪs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ass” - see the side-by-side comparison. abyss vs ass
- 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.