age

Name: age, English Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

/eɪd͡ʒ/

//eɪd͡ʒ// noun

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“age” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #475) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#475
frequency rank, English: 3,931
“A” headwords: 20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 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...

Corpus desk

Index EN-age · age · English

age · rank #475 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

FREQ-CORE #475
LEN-MID 3 letters
VOW-2 2 vowels
CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
VAR-0 0 variants
BOOK-MID 3,931
PHOTO-FINISH taken

Nearest frequency peer: taken (-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.

short

99,529
stay

99,528
taken

99,527
age

99,526
buy

99,525
deal

99,524

What this shows Bars place “age” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

age vs as

33% similar

age vs at

33% similar

age vs an

33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for age
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)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “age”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).agelands here:

#475

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “taken” (#474), “buy” (#476), “stay” (#473). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “age” is #475. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for age is neighbouring look-alikes ("as", "at", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /eɪd͡ʒ/. Frequency #475 among 3,931 “A” headwords. 15 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

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

1
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 measured in number of years; alternatively in months, days, hours, etc.; see also the usage notes)
2
The state of being old; the latter part of life.
3
Any particular stage of life.
4
The time of life at which some particular power or capacity is understood to become vested.
5
Maturity; especially, the time of life at which one attains full personal rights and capacities.
6
A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.
7
A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.
8
A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.
9
A particular period of time in history, as distinguished from others.
10
One of the twelve divisions of a Great Year, equal to roughly 2000 years and governed by one of the zodiacal signs; a Platonic month.
11
A period of one hundred years; a century.
12
A generation.
13
A long time.
14
Lifespan, lifetime; the total time that some being is alive from birth to death (or some category of beings, on average).
15
The 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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how age appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

"What is the age of your oldest child?" — "He's ten." (ten years old)
What were their ages at the time of their marriage?

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

edad(Español)âge(Français)Alter(Deutsch)idade(Português)

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"?

"age" is spelled A-G-E. The IPA pronunciation is /eɪd͡ʒ/.

What does "age" mean?

As a noun, "age" means: 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...

What words are commonly confused with "age"?

"age" is commonly confused with "as", "at", "an". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "age"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "age" is /eɪd͡ʒ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What is the origin of the word "age"?

Is PlainSpell free to use?

Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "age", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

buy#476 red#480 low#468 saw#459