adware
/ˈædˌwɛə/
"adware" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“adware” is an uncommon English word, ranked #77,383 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #77,383
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A software application that includes advertisements, which are displayed while the software is running. Developers use adware as a source of income and to keep the costs of the software down (usual...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | adware |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈædˌwɛə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #77,383 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “adware” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for adware is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈædˌwɛə/. Corpus data places it at rank #77,383 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A software application that includes advertisements, which are displayed while the software is running. Developers use adware as a source of income and to keep the costs of the software down (usual...".
adware has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From ad + -ware. The correct English form is adware, spelled A-D-W-A-R-E.
Definition
- 1A software application that includes advertisements, which are displayed while the software is running. Developers use adware as a source of income and to keep the costs of the software down (usually making it free). Some adware programs can include spyware.
Etymology
From ad + -ware.
This word in other languages
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 “adware”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-D-W-A-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈædˌwɛə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.