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address

ad·dress/əˈdɹɛs/noun, verb

address is spelled A-D-D-R-E-S-S, 2 syllables: ad·dress. The wrong spelling people search most is adress: about 2,540 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 12 of all searches for the word. Address is a noun meaning “A manner of speaking or writing to another; language, style”. The plural of address is addresses.

How many letters and syllables are in address?

Letters7: A-D-D-R-E-S-S
Syllables2: ad·dress
In writing81 times per million words; the 1,302nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched2; the most searched, adress, about 2,540 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell address?

Address is spelled A-D-D-R-E-S-S. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for address in either form.

addressthe right spelling27,010 searches a month
adressa missing d2,540 searches a month
adresa missing d, a missing s700 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is address?

Address appears 81 times per million words in written English, the 1,302nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce address?

  • /əˈdɹɛs/
  • /ˈædɹɛs/
  • /ˈædɹɛs/

As a verb (“To prepare oneself”): /əˈdɹɛs/, /ˈædɹɛs/.

Address has 2 syllables, split ad·dress in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-address.ogg, En-uk-address.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of address

  • addresses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • addressing participle, present
  • addressed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does address mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteGuidance; help.

  2. 2

    archaicA polite approach made to another person, especially of a romantic nature; an amorous advance.

  3. 3

    A manner of speaking or writing to another; language, style.

    a man of pleasing or insinuating address

  4. 4

    A formal approach to a sovereign or head of state, especially an official appeal or petition.

  5. 5

    CommonwealthA response given by each of the Houses of Parliament to the sovereign's speech at the opening of Parliament.

  6. 6

    An act of addressing oneself to a person or group; a discourse or speech, or a record of this.

  7. 7

    A description of the location of a property, usually with at least a street name and number, name of a town, and now also a postal code; such a description as superscribed for direction on an envelope or letter.

    The President's address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C.

  8. 8

    The location of a property.

    I went to his address but there was nobody there.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo prepare oneself.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo direct speech.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo aim; to direct.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo prepare or make ready.

  5. 5

    To prepare oneself; to apply one's skill or energies (to some object); to betake.

  6. 6

    To direct one’s remarks (to someone).

  7. 7

    archaicTo clothe or array; to dress.

  8. 8

    To direct, as words (to anyone or anything); to make, as a speech, petition, etc. (to any audience).

    He addressed some portions of his remarks to his supporters, some to his opponents.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate address?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of address: add..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Address in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanAnsprache (polite romantic advance), Art, Anrede (manner of speaking to another), Adresse, Anschrift (description of the location of a property…), ansprechen ((obsolete in English) to direct speech)
Frenchlangage (manner of speaking to another), adresse (description of the location of a property…), s'adresser ((obsolete in English) to direct speech), discours (act of addressing oneself to a person or group), habileté (preparedness for a task, skill – see also skill), s'adresser à (to direct speech to)
Portuguesediscurso, tratamento (manner of speaking to another), endereço, morada (description of the location of a property…), abordar (to direct attention towards a problem or…), endereçar (to refer to a location in computer memory)
Spanishdirección, domicilio (description of the location of a property…), dirigirse ((obsolete in English) to direct speech), dirigir, derezar, enderezar ((obsolete in English) to aim)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

What to look up after address