affray
/əˈfɹeɪ/noun
affray is spelled A-F-F-R-A-Y: 6 letters. It appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 71,529th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, affray means “The act of suddenly disturbing anyone; an assault or attack” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of affray is affrays.
How many letters and syllables are in affray?
| Letters | 6: A-F-F-R-A-Y |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 6 million words; the 71,529th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is affray?
Affray appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 71,529th 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 affray?
- /əˈfɹeɪ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-affray.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-affray.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of affray
- affrays present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- affraying participle, present
- affrayed participle, past
- afray
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does affray mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of suddenly disturbing anyone; an assault or attack.
A 22-year-old man was also arrested in connection with the incident for affray towards attending paramedics.
- 2
A tumultuous assault or quarrel.
- 3
The fighting of two or more persons, in a public place, to the terror of others.
The affray in the busy marketplace caused great terror and disorder.
- 4
obsoleteTerror.
verb
- 1
archaicTo startle from quiet; to alarm.
- 2
archaicTo frighten; to scare; to frighten away.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Affray in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a sudden assault or quarrel:
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.
Where does affray come from?
From Middle English affraien (“to terrify, frighten”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman afrayer (“to terrify, disquiet, disturb”) and Old French effreer, esfreer (“to disturb, remove the peace from”) (compare modern French effrayer), from Vulgar Latin *exfridāre. The second part of this is in turn from Frankish *friþu (“security, peace”), from Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace”), from *frijōną (“to free; to love”), from Proto-Indo-European *prāy-, *prēy- (“to like, love”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).