afore
/əˈfoɹ/
"afore" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“afore” is uncommon English (frequency #57,845 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #57,845
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Before, temporally.
Corpus desk
Index EN-afore · afore · English
afore · rank #57,845 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #57,845
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH Adolphe
Nearest frequency peer: Adolphe (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “afore”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Addington
Addington
42,160 corpus weight
- Adolphe
Adolphe
42,157 corpus weight
- afore
afore
42,156 corpus weight
- Ainsley
Ainsley
42,153 corpus weight
- Aliyev
Aliyev
42,151 corpus weight
- alums
alums
42,150 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “afore” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | afore |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /əˈfoɹ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #57,845 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “afore” in English
Rare enough to double-check
afore is uncommon English at frequency #57,845 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anadverb, transcribed /əˈfoɹ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for afore, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English afore, aforn, from Old English onforan or ætforan; equivalent to a- + fore. The correct English form is afore, spelled A-F-O-R-E.
Definition
- 1Before, temporally.
- 2Before, in front, spatially.
- 3Before, in front, spatially.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how afore appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Stephano: He's in his fit now ; and doe's not talke after the wiſeſt ; hee ſhall taſte of my Bottle : if hee haue neuer drunke wine afore, it will goe neere to remoue his Fit :[…]
A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well.
Etymology
From Middle English afore, aforn, from Old English onforan or ætforan; equivalent to a- + fore.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "afore", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).