ago
/əˈɡəʊ/
"ago" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ago” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #365 in English word frequency and used as a postp.
- #365
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Before now, before the present time
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 | ago |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Postp |
| IPA | /əˈɡəʊ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #365 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ago” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ago is 3 letters long, classified as a postp, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈɡəʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #365 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Before now, before the present time".
Zero misspellings are on record for ago in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. 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 *ud-s-? Proto-Indo-European *h₂u-s-? Proto-Germanic *uz- Proto-West Germanic *uʀ- Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁-der. Proto-Germanic *gāną Proto-West Germanic *gān Proto-West Germanic *uʀgān Old English āgān Middle English ago… The correct English form is ago, spelled A-G-O.
Definition
- 1Before now, before the present time
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ud-s-? Proto-Indo-European *h₂u-s-? Proto-Germanic *uz- Proto-West Germanic *uʀ- Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁-der. Proto-Germanic *gāną Proto-West Germanic *gān Proto-West Germanic *uʀgān Old English āgān Middle English agon English ago From Middle English ago, agon (“passed”), past participle of agon (“to depart, escape, pass”), from Old English āgān (“to go away, pass away, go forth, come to pass”), from Proto-Germanic *uz- (“out”), *gāną (“to go”), equivalent to a- + gone, and by surface analysis, a- + go. Cognate with German ergehen (“to come to pass, fare, go forth”). Compare also Old Saxon āgangan (“to go or pass by”), Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌲𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌰𐌽 (usgaggan, “to go forth”).
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
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Using “ago”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-G-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈɡəʊ/ (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. ago 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.