adieu
/əˈdju/
"adieu" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“adieu” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #35,604 in English word frequency and used as an interjection.
- #35,604
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 12
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Said to wish a final farewell; goodbye.
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 | adieu |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /əˈdju/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #35,604 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 12 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “adieu” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for adieu is 5 letters long, classified as an interjection, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈdju/. Corpus data places it at rank #35,604 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Said to wish a final farewell; goodbye.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for adieu, with forms such as "addieu", "adeiu", and "adiue". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 12 confusable-pair relationships, "Arie", "alien", "Ariel", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English adieu also adew, adewe, adue, from Old French adieu (“to God”), a shortening of a Dieu vous comant (“I commend you to God”), from Medieval Latin ad Deum (“to God”). Doublet of adios. The correct English form is adieu, spelled A-D-I-E-U.
Definition
- 1Said to wish a final farewell; goodbye.
Etymology
From Middle English adieu also adew, adewe, adue, from Old French adieu (“to God”), a shortening of a Dieu vous comant (“I commend you to God”), from Medieval Latin ad Deum (“to God”). Doublet of adios.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: addieu,adeiu,adiue,aideu,daieu
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of adieu - 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 “adieu”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-D-I-E-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈdju/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Arie” - see the side-by-side comparison. adieu vs Arie
- 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.