affright
/əˈfɹaɪt/
"affright" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“affright” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Great fear, terror, fright.
Corpus desk
Index EN-affright · affright · English
affright · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | affright |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈfɹaɪt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “affright” in English
Rare enough to double-check
affright is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /əˈfɹaɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Great fear, terror, fright.".
affright doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English afrighten, from Old English āfyrhtan, equivalent to a- + fright. The correct English form is affright, spelled A-F-F-R-I-G-H-T.
Definition
- 1Great fear, terror, fright.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how affright appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
No one for a moment dreamed of the possible occurrence of any thing in the course of a few hours which would fill every mind with horror, and cause even the dark-hearted Martina to tremble with affright.
[…]Then behold, there came up to us a huge fish, as big as a tall mountain, at whose sight we became wild for affright and, weeping sore, made ready for death, marvelling at its vast size and gruesome semblance; when lo! a second fish made its appearance than which we had seen naught more monstrous.
Etymology
From Middle English afrighten, from Old English āfyrhtan, equivalent to a- + fright.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.