age
/eɪd͡ʒ/
"age" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“age” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #475 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #475
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The amount of time that some being has been alive, or that some thing has been in existence, as measured from its birth or origin until the present or until some other given reference point. (Often...
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 | age |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /eɪd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #475 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “age” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for age is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /eɪd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #475 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for age, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "as", "at", "an", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ey- Proto-Indo-European *h₂óyu Proto-Italic *aiwom Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts Proto-Italic *-tāts Proto-Italic *aiwotāts Vulgar Latin aetās Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ … The correct English form is age, spelled A-G-E.
Definition
- 1The amount of time that some being has been alive, or that some thing has been in existence, as measured from its birth or origin until the present or until some other given reference point. (Often measured in number of years; alternatively in months, days, hours, etc.; see also the usage notes)
- 2The state of being old; the latter part of life.
- 3Any particular stage of life.
- 4The time of life at which some particular power or capacity is understood to become vested.
- 5Maturity; especially, the time of life at which one attains full personal rights and capacities.
- 6A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.
- 7A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.
- 8A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.
- 9A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.
- 10One of the twelve divisions of a Great Year, equal to roughly 2000 years and governed by one of the zodiacal signs; a Platonic month.
- 11A period of one hundred years; a century.
- 12A generation.
- 13A long time.
- 14Lifespan, lifetime; the total time that some being is alive from birth to death (or some category of beings, on average).
- 15The entitlement of the player to the left of the dealer to pass the first round in betting, and then to come in last or stay out; also, the player holding this position; the eldest hand.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ey- Proto-Indo-European *h₂óyu Proto-Italic *aiwom Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts Proto-Italic *-tāts Proto-Italic *aiwotāts Vulgar Latin aetās Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Vulgar Latin -ātus Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Italic *-kos Vulgar Latin -cus Vulgar Latin -icus Vulgar Latin -āticus Vulgar Latin -āticum Vulgar Latin *aetāticum Old French eagebor. Middle English age English age From Middle English age, Old French aage, eage, edage, from an assumed Vulgar Latin *aetāticum, derived from Latin aetātem, itself derived from aevum (“lifetime”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyu- (“vital force”). Compare French âge. Displaced native Old English ieldu. The verb is from Middle English agen, from the noun. Originally found mostly as a participial adjective, probably an adjective in -ed, derived from the noun, reanalyzed to create a verb; perhaps modeled on such pairs as Latin senēscō (seneō; verb) / senex (adjective) and Middle French vieillir (verb) / vieil (adjective). Also compare Old French se aagier, eogier (“become of age”).
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
How do you spell "age"?
What does "age" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "age"?
How do you pronounce "age"?
What is the origin of the word "age"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “age”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /eɪd͡ʒ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “as” - see the side-by-side comparison. age vs as
- 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.