acorn
/ˈeɪ.kɔɹn/
"acorn" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“acorn” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #25,989 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #25,989
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The fruit of the oak, being an oval nut growing in a woody cup or cupule.
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 | acorn |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈeɪ.kɔɹn/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #25,989 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “acorn” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for acorn is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈeɪ.kɔɹn/. Corpus data places it at rank #25,989 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for acorn, with forms such as "accorn", "aconr", and "acornn". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ARN", "acre", "Avon", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English acorn, an alteration (after corn) of earlier *akern, from Old English æcern (“acorn, oak-mast”), from Proto-West Germanic *akarn, from Proto-Germanic *akraną (“fruit; acorn, nut”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂égrō (“berry”). Cognates Cog… The correct English form is acorn, spelled A-C-O-R-N.
Definition
- 1The fruit of the oak, being an oval nut growing in a woody cup or cupule.
- 2A cone-shaped piece of wood on the point of the spindle above the vane, on the mast-head.
- 3See acorn-shell.
- 4The glans penis.
- 5A testicle.
Etymology
From Middle English acorn, an alteration (after corn) of earlier *akern, from Old English æcern (“acorn, oak-mast”), from Proto-West Germanic *akarn, from Proto-Germanic *akraną (“fruit; acorn, nut”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂égrō (“berry”). Cognates Cognate with Scots aicorn (“acorn”), Dutch aker (“acorn”), German Ecker (“acorn”), Danish agern (“acorn”), Faroese and Icelandic akarn (“acorn”), Norwegian Nynorsk åkorn (“acorn”), Gothic 𐌰𐌺𐍂𐌰𐌽 (akran, “fruit”); Irish airne (“sloe”), Welsh aeron (“berries; small fruits”), eirin (“plums”), Latgalian ūga (“berry”), Latvian oga (“berry”), Lithuanian uoga (“berry”), Belarusian я́гада (jáhada, “berry”), Bulgarian, Russian, and Ukrainian я́года (jáhoda, “berry”), Czech and Slovak jahoda (“strawberry”), Macedonian ја́года (jágoda, “strawberry”), Polish and Slovene jagoda (“berry”), Serbo-Croatian ја̏года, jȁgoda (“strawberry”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B oko (“fruit”). Not related to Old English āc (“oak”), corn (“corn, seed”) or Middle English acquerne.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: accorn,aconr,acornn,acorrn,acron,aocrn,caorn
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of acorn - 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
How do you spell "acorn"?
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Using “acorn”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-C-O-R-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈeɪ.kɔɹn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ARN” - see the side-by-side comparison. acorn vs ARN
- 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.