access
/ˈæksɛs/
"access" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“access” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #940 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #940
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 15
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A way or means of approaching or entering; an entrance; a passage.
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 | access |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈæksɛs/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #940 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “access” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for access is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈæksɛs/. Corpus data places it at rank #940 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 generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for access, with forms such as "acces", "accses", and "acecss". 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 15 confusable-pair relationships, "aces", "acres", "aches", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English accesse, acces, borrowed from Middle French acces (“attack, onslaught”) or from its source Latin accessus, perfect passive participle of accēdō (“approach; accede”), from ad (“to, toward, at”) + cēdō (“move, yield”). Doublet of accessus.… The correct English form is access, spelled A-C-C-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1A way or means of approaching or entering; an entrance; a passage.
- 2The act of approaching or entering; an advance.
- 3The right or ability of approaching or entering; admittance; admission; accessibility.
- 4The quality of being easy to approach or enter.
- 5Admission to sexual intercourse.
- 6An increase by addition; accession
- 7An onset, attack, or fit of disease; an ague fit.
- 8An outburst of an emotion; a paroxysm; a fit of passion.
- 9The right of a noncustodial parent to visit their child.
- 10The process of locating data in memory.
- 11Connection to or communication with a computer program or to the Internet.
- 12Complicity or assent.
Etymology
From Middle English accesse, acces, borrowed from Middle French acces (“attack, onslaught”) or from its source Latin accessus, perfect passive participle of accēdō (“approach; accede”), from ad (“to, toward, at”) + cēdō (“move, yield”). Doublet of accessus. First attested in the early 14th century. The sense "entrance" was first attested about 1380.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acces,accses,acecss,acess,cacess
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of access - 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 “access”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-C-C-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈæksɛs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “aces” - see the side-by-side comparison. access vs aces
- 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.